Temples of Chance

by David Cay Johnston

An account of how, in the 1980s, the junk bond kings usurped mob control of the casino industry discusses corruption in the industry and the role of the U.S. government in that corruption. National ad/promo.

Genres: Nonfiction

312 pages, Hardcover

First published September 22, 1992

About the author

David Cay Boyle Johnston (born December 24, 1948) is an American investigative journalist and author, a specialist in economics and tax issues, and winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting.

From 2009 to 2016 he was a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer who taught the tax, property, and regulatory law of the ancient world at Syracuse University College of Law and the Whitman School of Management. From July 2011 until September 2012 he was a columnist for Reuters, writing, and producing video commentaries, on worldwide issues of tax, accounting, economics, public finance and business. Johnston is the board president of Investigative Reporters and Editors. He has also written for Al Jazeera English and America in recent years.

Reviews

[Alex Yard]

This was more or less a dull bust. I'm surprised more people haven't trickled over to it given Trump in the election currently. As it happens while writing this review I saw that this author put out a book on Trump about a month ago, August 2016, so that might have been the better route to go for an in-depth examination of Trump's character as illustrated by his habits of business practice.

I came across it as it was mentioned on Harry Shearer's Le Show podcast as shining a light on Trump's sketchy business practices in the casino industry in the 80s. There's a fair amount of that here but it isn't the focus of the book. Each chapter was hit or miss. A lot of sections were a really tedious account of which company bought which casino, who made their loan payments, in what manner. And to the book's fault it doesn't really explain a lot of the business/loan/stock market jargon it uses, so a layman like myself could only plow through it hoping to pick up on the general points, but in the meantime having to slog through paragraphs of particulars I don't have the background to process. For a book marketed as a casual jaunt for the common man, this is unacceptable.

The interesting sections involved super-criminals using casinos as a money laundering enterprise. It was also interesting to read about the tricky devious ways that casinos deceive super rich folks into remaining in the casino to continue blowing away their money.

There is also a part where casino was looking to set up attractions to get people in the door so they had this duck in a cage where if you put in a quarter some music would play and the duck would start dancing which was a perceived as an incredible feat because ducks are established as a species you can't train to perform actions like that. Turns out it wasn't trained at all. It's because it was standing on an electric plate that would shock the duck and make it step up and down which is totally awful and screwed up.

For what it's worth reading this book confirmed heavily what I've always basically felt about casinos, that they are ultimately a net negative effect on society in general. To be honest I would be in support of just making casinos illegal as well as the lottery. If not that, they should have far stricter limitations on what they're allowed to do. Casinos do not have a positive aspect on job creation because they only create jobs within the casino itself while everything in the surrounding area shrivels and dies. Also the odds of gambling are designed so that, statistically, you will lose your cash as long as you continue playing long enough. So it's just mega-rich-corporations/entrepreneurs conveniently grabbing wads of cash not just from rich high rollers but also middle and lower class people who lack the judgement to see what they're doing. That these people could have instead invested that money in their families or going back to school to better themselves, but instead pissed the money away for a fleeting thrill at the craps table...it is sort of unbelievable that our country allows this to happen. But, FREEDOM, AM I RIGHT? Speaking of, this book does shine a light on how poorly the casino regulation bureau enforces the standards it is tasked with upholding, treating certain companies/casinos with leniency and really neglecting to do their due diligence in approving business deals/transactions/loans that are genuinely feasible and for the public good.

So I concede that this book had a lot of ideas/evidence worth discussing, but as a book to read, it wasn't really engaging. It would have been better delivered as a segment on 60 Minutes or something.

[Andy]

Written in 1992. A few chapters on Trump that are worth reading.

[Red]

From the archive. Unavailable. If you see this at a bargain book sale, buy it. Superb. Another journalist book.