Inside Las Vegas
by Mario Puzo
"Should I go to heaven, give me no haloed angles riding snow-white clouds, no, not even the sultry hours of the Moslems. Give me rather a vaulting red-walled casino with bright lights, bring on horned devils as dealers. Let there be a Pit Boss in the Sky who will give me unlimited credit. And if there is a merciful God in our Universe he will decree that the player have for all eternity, an Edge against the House."
Gambling was serious business to Mario Puzo and this book of essays explores the depth of this pastime and the town he loved.
Mario traces gambling through the ages and how it affected human history, politics and religion, then extends this timeline into his own life and how it largely kept him out of trouble and on his toes, how it helped his family and also how it molded his view of human nature. His honesty makes no excuses, just enough reasons without the moralizing.
Finally, almost halfway through the book, Mario turns his attention to detail upon the town and the many type of people who populate and make it work; state government and IRS unique working relationship, the psychology of poker players and stories of women surviving this town are many many subject cases that passes under for his microscope.
On a personal level this is also my first Vegas book. I was 14 and I just started my obsession over this town when I saw the neon lit paperback version of this title at a drug store in the San Fernando Valley. I was too young and WAY too immature to understand any of Puzo's adult writing but the B&W raw no-nonsense photos Vegas humanity sparked my imagination.
As side note, I finally was non-smarkalic enough to fully read and understand this book when I found the hardcover edition of this title with color photos
