Nevada Public Radio Online Auction – Western States Public Radio
Auction Ends: Feb 27, 2010 04:00 PM PST

Books, Music & Video

"Double or Nothing" by Tom Breitling with Cal Fussman

Item Number
NVR-3065
Estimated Value
25 USD
Sold
9 USD to kfreiter
Number of Bids
1  -  Bid History

Item Description

Call them the Odds Couple. Tom, a self-proclaimed “square from Barnesville, U.S.A.,” is practical and precise (ploddish, Tim might say). Tim, with his brilliant mind for numbers and gambler’s instincts, was already doing brisk business as a bookie (and was once 20 grand in the hole) while attending Bishop Gorman High School, where casino chips were welcome in the chapel collection plate at graduation. Together, they called Barry Diller’s bluff, appeared on People’s 50 Hottest Bachelors list, starred in the reality TV show “The Casino,” partnered with Andre Agassi and Perry Rogers, and went on the ride of their lives.

In "Double or Nothing: How Two Friends Risked It All To Buy One of Las Vegas' Legendary Casinos," Breitling and co-author Cal Fussman retrace the astounding arc of Tom and Tim’s careers. A young college graduate hoping to be the next Bob Costas, Breitling landed his first broadcasting job at KHIZ-TV in California before joining Tim’s company, Las Vegas Reservation Systems, Inc., a hotel room rental business built around the merchant model Tim devised during an entrepreneurial class at USC. Tom added one of the first automatic online reservation systems that allowed people to search, compare, and reserve hotel space via the Internet. Playing their two great hands—the dot-com/Internet explosion and the Las Vegas hotel-building boom—they co-founded Travelscape. Selling the company in 2000 to Expedia, in a deal valued at more than $100 million, the partners’ next big score was The Golden Nugget hotel-casino property in Las Vegas.

It was a toss of the dice that put everything at risk—their reputations, their friendship, and every cent they had. “People in the know were truly scared for us,” says Breitling in DOUBLE OR NOTHING. Faced with inexperienced dealers, dishonest cashiers, and high rollers who took their house profits on half-a-million-dollar swings, Breitling and Poster

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