Jack Binion is an American businessman. Binion is the son of casino magnate

Benny Binion Lester Ben Binion (November 20, 1904 – December 5, 1989), better known as Benny Binion, was an American gambling icon, career criminal, and convicted murderer who established illegal gambling operations in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, area. H ...

and worked for his father at

Binion's Horseshoe Binion's Gambling Hall & Hotel, formerly Binion's Horseshoe, is a casino on Fremont Street along the Fremont Street Experience mall in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned by TLC Casino Enterprises. The casino is named for its founder, Benny ...

, a casino and

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

Biography

Binion became president of the Horseshoe in 1963 at the age of 26. His stature within the organization grew following the Horseshoe Casino's 1970 hosting of the first

World Series of Poker The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada and, since 2004, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker pla ...

, which would become the largest

poker tournament A poker tournament is a tournament where players compete by playing poker. It can feature as few as two players playing on a single table (called a "heads up poker, heads-up" tournament), and as many as tens of thousands of players playing on th ...

in the world. Privately held, Binion's Horseshoe was one of Nevada's most successful casino operations. In 1998, following a protracted legal battle for control of the Horseshoe among Benny Binion's heirs, Binion sold his interest in Binion's Horseshoe to his sister, Becky Behnen, while retaining a token 1% interest in the operation so that he could lawfully retain his Nevada Gaming License. He also acquired the rights to the Horseshoe brand outside of Nevada. Binion went on to form

Horseshoe Gaming Holding Corporation Horseshoe Gaming Holding Corporation was established in 1993 with its only asset being the rights to use the Horseshoe name on casinos. The corporation was a private holding company mostly owned by Jack Binion. History In 1994, the company acqu ...

which developed and operated several

riverboat casino A riverboat casino is a type of casino on a riverboat found in several states in the United States with frontage on the Mississippi River and its tributaries, or along the Gulf Coast. Several states authorized this type of casino in order to en ...

s under the Horseshoe name. Binion continued to promote the casinos for

Harrah's Entertainment Harrah's Entertainment (later named Caesars Entertainment Corporation, previously The Promus Companies) was an American casino and hotel company founded in Reno, Nevada, and based in Paradise, Nevada, that operated over 50 properties and seven go ...

following his sale of the company in 2004 to Harrah's. As of 2008, Binion's name appears on the "Jack Binion's Steakhouse" at Horseshoe Tunica and Horseshoe Hammond and several of the Horseshoe-branded casinos still carry slot machines bearing Binion's likeness called "Who Wants To Be A Binionaire?" that originated before the Harrah's acquisition. While running Horseshoe Gaming, Binion started the

World Poker Open The World Poker Open was one of the annual events on the World Poker Tour. Notes

{{reflist World Poker Tour ...

which at one time was a major feeder tournament for the World Series of Poker. Binion was inducted into the American Gaming Association's Gaming Hall of Fame on June 11, 2004. The following year on July 6, 2005, the World Series of Poker, inducted him into the

Poker Hall of Fame The Poker Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional poker in the United States. Founded in Las Vegas, it was created in 1979 by Benny Binion, the owner of the Horseshoe Casino, to preserve the names and legacies of the world's greatest ...

. In July 2006, Binion became chairman of

Wynn Resorts Wynn or wyn (; also spelled wen, ƿynn, and ƿen) is a letter of the Old English alphabet, where it is used to represent the sound . History The letter "W" While the earliest Old English texts represent this phoneme with the digraph , ...

. His responsibilities included opening the

Wynn Macau Wynn Macau () is a luxury hotel and casino resort in the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China with two towers containing a total of 1,008 rooms and suites, approximately of casino space, over of retail space, e ...

. He has since resigned the position but has remained with Wynn Resorts in a consulting role.

References

Sources

Las Vegas Sun The ''Las Vegas Sun'' is one of the Las Vegas Valley's two daily Subscription business model, subscription newspapers. It is owned by the Greenspun family and is affiliated with Greenspun Media Group. The paper published afternoons on weekdays ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Binion, Jack American casino industry businesspeople American chief executives of travel and tourism industry companies American poker players Living people World Series of Poker Poker Hall of Fame inductees Year of birth missing (living people)