Winner Takes All - by Christina Binkley (Paperback)

About the Book

"Originally published in hardcover by Hyperion Books in March 2008 and in trade paperback in March 2009"--Copyright page.

Book Synopsis

From Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and culture critic Christina Binkley comes an updated edition of her New York Times bestselling account of sex, drugs, and the rise of Las Vegas. With a new prologue on the rise and fall of Steve Wynn.

The Strip. Home to some of the world's grandest, flashiest, and most lucrative casino resorts, Las Vegas, with its multitude of attractions, draws millions of tourists from around the world every year. But Sin City hasn't always been booming: modern Vegas exists largely thanks to the extraordinary vision, and remarkable hubris, of three competing business moguls: Kirk Kerkorian, Dr. Gary Loveman, and Steve Wynn. And in the wake of #MeToo revelations, not all empires survive.

Having had personal access to all three tycoons, Binkley explains how their audacious efforts to reach the top-and to top one another-shaped the city as it stands. She takes us inside their grandest schemes, their riskiest deals, and the personalities that drove them to their greatest successes, and their most painful defeats. In this updated edition, she reveals the inside story of how Steve Wynn, the winner who took all, ultimately lost everything-twice.

Sharp, insightful, and revealing, Winner Takes All is the gripping story of how billions of dollars and the unparalleled drive for power turned dreams into larger-than-life reality.

"It's a great drama on the greatest stage. . . Wynn, Kerkorian, and Loveman represent three opposing business personalities, three styles of achieving success. On the Vegas Strip, they're pitted against one another like gladiators, and we've got front-row seats. Kapow!" - bestselling author Po Bronson

Review Quotes

"A must-read!"
--Vital Vegas podcast

"Binkley offers plenty of nuggets mined from her years on the beat, producing a full, flashy tale of powerful men and their pride, vanity, envy, greed-and all the other cardinal no-no's that earned Vegas the name Sin City."--Publishers Weekly

"Binkley vividly conveys the repulsiveness of the scene, but as with train wrecks, you just can't stop looking. Or reading."--The Washington Post

"Explosive."--Page Six

"I haven't put this book down and for good reason. If you're curious about the people, ahem, men, who rule Las Vegas, Winner Takes All will introduce you to the world of flashy, egomaniacal business moguls. Christina Binkley a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist leads the troops into Las Vegas and unearths Steve Wynn, the tycoon behind such hotels as The Wynn and Encore hotels, amongst others. You'll be captivated by it."
--Women.com

"The author has a novelist's instinct for character development and taut, suspenseful storytelling, infusing the subject with all of the drama, verve and what-happens-next imperative of a classic Scorsese epic."--Kirkus Reviews

"The odds are good this will be quite a bestseller. It's a great drama on the greatest stage Wynn, Kerkorian, and Loveman represent three opposing business personalities, three styles of achieving success. On the Vegas strip, they're pitted against each other like gladiators, and we've got front row seats. Kapow!"--Po Bronson, author of What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question

"You won't want to put down her tale of how Kirk Kerkorian, Gary Loveman, and Steve Wynn got their start and made their fortunes in Sin City."--CNN Money

About the Author

Christina Binkley is an award-winning journalist who writes and chats about the business of culture. At the Wall Street Journal for twenty-three years, she covered fashion, gambling, and other topics that familiarized her with larger-than-life personalities.

Binkley contributes to WSJ Magazine, the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, and DesignLA. She appears periodically on venues such as CNN and National Public Radio. A graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Binkley was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of 9/11. She was awarded the Jesse Laventhol Prize for Deadline News Reporting by the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

Binkley lives in the hills of Los Angeles with her husband and two teens, with cats, a dog, a passel of chickens, and a dead-on view of the Hollywood sign.