Marc Ratner was born July 25, 1944 in Phoenix, Arizona. His family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada when he was in the seventh grade in 1957. The Ratner family belonged to Temple Beth Sholom. Ratner is a graduate of Las Vegas High School and Nevada Southern (now UNLV.) Ratner worked for decades at officiating and regulating sports events, especially boxing, mixed martial arts, and football. He served as official in three collegiate bowl games: the 2003 Aloha Bowl, 2000 Independence Bowl and 2006 Cotton Bowl.
Interview with Lonnie G. Wright conducted by Claytee D. White on October 23, 2009. Wright played basketball at UNLV and became a successful local educator and businessman. His grandmother worked as a maid for prominent Las Vegans.
The Penelope Ruchman Collection of Las Vegas, Nevada Casino Professionals Oral Histories includes interviews conducted by Ruchman from approximately 1999 to 2001 of casino industry workers who worked in Las Vegas, Nevada. The majority of interviews were conducted by Ruchman in their office at Gambler's Book Shop (GBS), but some where conducted in interviewee's homes and offices, or over the phone. The collection represents Ruchman's efforts to interview and document a generation of early casino industry workers that were quickly aging. The project was intended to be compiled as a definitive history of Las Vegas and American gambling, entitled "After the Gold Rush." The project was permanently postponed in the fall of 2001 when Ruchman left GBS to work for Park Place Entertainment as a corporate business and operations analyst, and later as casino operations director for Caesars Palace. Not all interviews have digital transcripts available.