Mike Unger was born June 6, 1947 in Queens, New York. He spent most of his childhood in Long Island, New York, growing up in a predominantly Jewish and Italian community. As a young adult, Unger was running one of his family’s restaurants after school. When he was in high school, his family moved to Los Angeles, California to accommodate his father’s health needs, and eventually ended up in Las Vegas, Nevada by 1967. Over the next two decades, Unger worked at nine properties in the city.

John Kell Houssels Jr. was born in Denver, Colorado on December 11, 1922. His family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada when he was eight years old, and his father recieved one of Nevada's first gambling licenses. John Kell, also known as Ike, would follow in his father's footsteps and go on to help Las Vegas gain fame as an entertainment destination. After serving in the military and finishing his undergraduate education at West Point Military Academy in 1945, he went to law school at Stanford. After finishing his schooling, he returned to Las Vegas.