Yesterday we traced the colorful history of Binion's famous Million Dollar Display, one of the most popular attractions in Las Vegas' history, in its first two incarnations. Fast forward to 1999, and things start to fall apart.
After his release from Leavenworth Penitentiary in 1957, Benny Binion bought back his casino from Joe W. Brown, but because of his felony conviction for tax evasion, Binion was barred from ever holding a Nevada gaming license again, so his two sons took over day-to-day control. Jack, who remains active in the casino world, these days as a consultant to Wynn Resorts, became president at the tender age of 26, while his troubled younger brother Ted became casino manager. Benny remained on the payroll as a "consultant" until his death in 1989.
While at the helm, Jack kept the business together and was a driving force behind the rise and rise of the World Series of Poker. Ted, on the other hand, was under the constant scrutiny of the Nevada Gaming Commission, both for his drug problems and the dubious characters with whom he was known to associate. He, like his father, was stripped of his gaming license in 1998 and was forced to sell his stake in the business to younger sister Becky Behnen (pictured in yesterday's answer), who then acquired the controlling interest in the property, following a long battle with her brother Jack.
The internecine struggles, set against an unfortunate movie-worthy backdrop that included Ted's eventual death from an overdose and the subsequent murder and theft trials involving his ex-stripper girlfriend and her lover, did nothing to help the fortunes of the once-legendary Horseshoe, which was also a victim of the general malaise that plagued the downtown district until recent years.
As president, Becky Behnen implemented a string of unpopular cost-cutting measures, including first the withdrawl, in 1999, of the free photo service and then, the following year, the sale of the Million Dollar Display itself. She claimed that the motive for the sale was that no one cared about it anymore, but from the outcry at the time, that clearly was not the case. "It's almost like family history. I'm extremely disappointed," observed Stratosphere owner Bob Stupak to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, while Becky's brother Jack also expressed his disappointment. Sources closer to Behnen agreed that it was the payment on the $3.5 million insurance policy that was the reason for the sale.
The buyer was a leading collector and seller of collectibles, including coins, comic books, and old photographs, named Jay Parrino, about whom very little seemed to be known, from our reading, although the R-J article alluded vaguely to him having been a "former Fremont Street worker."
Our online-research efforts at first yielded little more than we'd read in the local paper, aside from confirmation from the Tribune Photo archives, which now manages his photo collection for sale, that Parrino no longer owned the Binion Display. But if there's one thing QoD isn't, that's a quitter, so we persevered and yesterday by chance actually found ourselves on the phone with Mr Parrino himself, who proved to be extremely helpful, contrary to the impression we'd received elsewhere of this elusive gentleman.
What he told us not only contradicted much of what we'd read, but also rendered the fate of the display case to which you refer even more bizarre than at first we'd thought.
As to his background, Jay Parrino, who now resides in Kansas, explained that in his 20s he'd been a dealer at the Mint downtown, and had often visited the neighboring Horseshoe (which later bought and incorporated the Mint) for his lunch. He'd always been fascinated by the Million Dollar Display and vowed one day to own it. Some 40-odd years later, that dream became a possibility, with word that Becky was looking to rid herself of the collection. On hearing the news, Jay pursued her with an offer he felt she couldn't refuse. He had grand plans for the artifact and already had a deal with what was then Harrah's (now Caesars Ent.) for a national casino tour. (The group bought the Horseshoe-brand name from her brother Jack, in 2004, and subsequently also the World Series of Poker, so the attraction would have been even more relevant to them down the line). Parrino was all set to go and even had a catalog produced.
But Becky, in typical style, procrastinated and evaded his advances, until he suddenly received a call informing him that the sale was on but that he had just 48 hours in which to come and claim his prize. How much he paid for the collection remains undisclosed, but from our phone conversation we learned that Behnen absolutely refused to sell him the gold horseshoe-shaped case in which it had been housed, dating back to the Joe W. Brown days. He told us he offered her multiples more than it was worth, since without the iconic housing, the collection was worth only the sum of its parts, but she wouldn't budge, despite the casino's well-publicized financial straits. Becky apparently spoke with the U.S. Mint about a possible plan to replace the display with a new one of millennium coins, but that never came to fruition.
Even stranger, Parrino later learned on the grapevine from a Las Vegas casino executive that the display case had ended up in the Neon Boneyard -- a fact that we have tried but failed to verify, to date, due to the attraction's phone having been constantly set to voicemail since we began calling. (Once we've received confirmation, one way or the other, of the answer to the specific question that spawned this epic answer, we will post it here as an "Update.")
Other interesting tidbits revealed by Jay Parrino include the fact that, contrary to other reports we read, the notes were not ruined when they came out of the case, but were found to have been attached via a rubber cement that turned out to be removable. So, while those bills placed around the edges of the display had suffered a little from exposure to dust, there were $10,000-bills in the center in mint condition, worth well over a million dollars each, due to their extreme rarity.
As to the fate of those bills, Parrino still owns a few, while others have been sold to collectors, including to some unnamed Las Vegas casino owners, he disclosed. The collection had comprised the 100 best-condition megabills in existence and now, with these scattered far and wide, and only a handful of other bills still out there, there's no way that this famous display could ever be recreated in its original form.
In 2008, new Binion's owner Terry Caudill announced that the casino would once more be home to a million-dollar display, but this one, less romantically, comprises $270,000 in $100 bills, $688,000 in $20 bills, and $42,000 in $1 bills, and is displayed in a pyramid shape in a perspex box. At the time, had the bills even been available, it was estimated that replicating the original $1 million-worth of $10,000 bills would have cost $16 million. The new $1 million-attraction is located by the players club, is open from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, and you must be 21 or older to take photo.
