Jack Binion is the first-born son of Benny Binion, who moved to Las Vegas with his family from Dallas in the late 1940s just ahead of the law. The Binions legitimized in Vegas and their casino, the Horseshoe, became known the world over for its high limits, good food, easy comps, and the World Series of Poker.
In 1994, Jack Binion established the privately held Horseshoe Gaming Holding Corp. That same year, he opened the Horseshoe Casino in Bossier City, Louisiana. A year later, he opened a second Horseshoe in Tunica, Mississippi. A couple years after that, he cashed out of Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas (by selling his stake to his sister Becky Behnen).
In 1999, Horseshoe Gaming acquired the Empress casinos in Joliet, Illinois, and Hammond, Indiana. In 2001, Binion had to sell the Joliet Empress, so he rebranded the Hammond Empress into the third Horseshoe.
In 2004, Binion sold the company and its Horseshoe brand to Harrah's for $1.45 billion, including $917 million in cash. The buy-out deal included a non-compete clause that prevented him from pursuing a casino project anywhere in the continental U.S. except for Las Vegas, which was specifically excluded from the deal.
Binion's personal share of the $1 billion he cashed out from his deal with Harrah's has been estimated to be worth about $400 million (the rest is managed for family members). He nosed around a few Strip properties (including the New Frontier), but nothing happened.
Meanwhile, it turns out that Jack was talking to Steve Wynn about doing something together. Finally, it was announced in July of this year that Binion took a job working for Wynn as the chairman of Wynn International, which makes him the senior executive for Wynn's Asian operations and development and puts him in charge of the Wynn Macau, which opened a few weeks ago.
Steve Wynn, 64, and Jack Binion, 69, have been colleagues and friends for more than 35 years. Wynn's first casino was the Golden Nugget downtown, which he took over in 1973. He quickly realized that the Golden Nugget and the Horseshoe across the street were complementary properties. "The Binions viewed my place as a dormitory for their casino, and I never could have attracted as many guests if it weren't for the Horseshoe," Wynn said recently. Wynn and Binion often had lunch together and reportedly enjoyed windsurfing on Lake Mead. In fact, it wasn't such a stretch that Jack Binion would throw in with Steve Wynn; Jack already owns about a million shares of Wynn stock.
Since announcing that he hired Binion, Wynn has been effusive about his old friend. "He’s the smartest inside gambler that ever was," Wynn told the Macau News.
