Mel Exber (1923-2002) was an innovative sports book operator and the longtime owner of the Las Vegas Club casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Exber was born in Brooklyn, New York on October 3, 1923. He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II and moved to Las Vegas in 1947. With his business partner, Jackie Gaughan, Exber opened the Saratoga Sports Book in 1953. Exber bought the Las Vegas Club in 1960, and also owned interests in the El Cortez, Plaza, Club Bingo, Western, Nevada, Gold Spike, and Barbary Coast.

William S. "Billy" Weinberger (1913-1996) was president of Caesars Palace in the 1960s and 1970s. He was also president of Bally's Park Place casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey in the 1970s and 1980s and ambassador emeritus for the Golden Nugget and the Mirage in Las Vegas in the 1980s and 1990s.

After Irene Porter's father's retirement from the Air Force, the family moved to Las Vegas where her aunt and uncle were involved in the gaming industry. After she married, she and her husband Dick moved to Boston. They moved back to Las Vegas due to the bad economy in Boston. Irene worked for the Clark County Planning Department as a secretary but moved up to doing the work of the director, but without the title nor the pay of that position, so she went to work in the planning department of the city of North Las Vegas and became its director of planning.