Documents in this series include press releases and press kits, which announce the tournament and key players; proceedings, including buy-in rosters, event schedules, participation lists, and handwritten notes that document the day-by-day results of play; player's brochures, with finished designs as well as raw materials for these brochures; newspaper and magazine clippings; and display ads in both draft and finished form. Most years do not contain all different types of materials, while some years document specialty events such as the women's tournament, live telecast, or sports charity events.
The Poker Hall of Fame was established in 1979 by the Binions to honor great poker players past and present. The first Hall of Fame inductees included five famous players and two contributors; every year thereafter one player was chosen for induction, many of them World Series regulars. Around 1986, Binion began hosting a championship game called the Poker Hall of Fame Classic in which the best players from diverse categories came together to play in celebration of the game.
The materials consist of press releases on the honorees, newspaper clippings and proceedings of the tournament, a few Hall of Fame certificates, and miscellaneous writings.
Material documents various advertising efforts and promotional schemes undertaken by Binion's Horseshoe in the late 1970s and early 1980s. One promotional event is the famous Las Vegas Mint 400 Race, an off-road race held annually in the Mojave Desert several miles outside of Las Vegas. The race was instituted in 1967 by Mint owner Del Webb and the Binions took it over after they purchased the Mint in 1988. Other events documented include a daredevil motorcycle event called Super Jump II, and a 1984 poker challenge gimmick against a computer designed by an early programmer named Mike Caro. There are also general casino advertising materials and budgets, as well as published writings on poker and press releases on poker activities and personalities.
These files focus on Benny Binion and his family, primarily Ted and Jack. Other clippings deal with general operations of the Horseshoe Casino, including news items on new promotions introduced at the Horseshoe such as the stagecoach, bingo room and slot tournaments. In addition there is a significant file on Eric and Jane Drache, primarily Eric as he was former director of the WSOP and co-managed the Ten Deuce Poker Room at the Silverbird Casino with Doyle Brunson. There are also three albums containing clippings from 1986 and 1987; which chronicle the newspaper coverage of WSOP events and personalities.
These files reflect some of the outside activities of the Binions' in the Las Vegas community as well as lesser known business activities inside the Horseshoe.
Examples of photographic subjects include scenes and closeups of some years of the World Series of Poker tournaments; Horseshoe Casino interiors, exteriors, roadside billboards and renovations; Binion's Montana ranch; and Jack Binion doing promotional giveaways for the Horseshoe.
The majority of photographic items are prints which can be found in black and white as well as color. There are also negatives and contact sheets, almost all of which duplicate prints already existing in the collection.
The artwork is mostly related to World Series of Poker events and personalities and the Binion family. Also included in this series are photograph albums from World Series of Poker tournaments in 1974 and 1979, an album recording a 1970s-era golfing trip among players, plaques and certificates of appreciation for the Binions' donations to philanthropic causes, and part of the proceedings of the 1981 WSOP.
The audiovisual materials consist of twenty-two videotape cassettes and eighteen audiotape cassettes. The audiotape cassettes primarily document the World Series of Poker in the early 1980s, while the videotape cassettes are mostly brief news releases with topics that range broadly across the whole collection.