Lester Ben "Benny" Binion, founder of the World Series of Poker and former "godfather" of downtown Las Vegas, died of heart failure at the age of 85 on December 25, 1989. Legendary poker player Amarillo Slim suggested an appropriate epitaph might read: "He was either the gentlest bad guy or the baddest good guy you'd ever seen." In fact, the family mausoleum he shares with wife Teddy Jane and son Ted merely states the name of each and their birth and death dates. You can find it to the right of the chapel entrance at Bunkers Eden Vale Cemetery, at 1216 Las Vegas Boulevard.
The bronze sculpture you reference depicts Binion -- who also brought the National Finals Rodeo to Sin City from his native Texas -- in his trademark stetson and is one of only two equestrian statues in the city, the other being of Raphael Rivera (the first non-Native American to set foot in the Las Vegas Valley). For 20 years, this tribute to Binion stood at the corner of Casino Center Boulevard and Ogden Avenue for 20 years but we can confirm that it is indeed the same one you saw at South Point. It was moved there from downtown in 2008.
While many long-term residents interpreted this as an attempt to whitewash Las Vegas' mobster past, in fact it was Binion’s son Jack who apparently felt that South Point's Equestrian Center would be a more appropriate place for Benny’s statue than behind Binion’s Gambling Hall & Hotel's parking garage. He prevailed upon Terry Caudill, then owner of the statue and of the casino, to sell it (for $1) to South Point owner Michael Gaughan, whose father Jackie had been a contemporary of Benny Binion’s and whose family shares his love of horses.
Sculpted in 1984 by Deborah Copenhaver, the statue stands 15 feet tall and weighs 14 tons. So big is it that South Point had to cut a hole in the wall to get it into the building, proving that in death, as well as in life, Benny Binion was of larger-than-life proportions. Of Caudill’s dollar sale of the statue to Gaughan, an appreciative Jack Binion said, "It was a classy thing to do." The only regret some have is that the commemorative plaque that had accompanied the statue in its original location did not make the southward migration, so today the uninitiated visitor may not appreciate the significance to the city's history of the legend that it immortalizes.
