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