Grandissimo is the story of how Jay Sarno won and lost his casino empire, inventing modern Las Vegas along the way. Jay Sarno built two path-breaking Las Vegas casinos, Caesars Palace (1966) and Circus Circus (1968), and planned but did not build a third, the Grandissimo, which would have started the mega-resort era a decade before Steve Wynn built The Mirage. Sarno invented the modern Las Vegas casino, but he was part of a dying breed--a back-pocket entrepreneur who'd parlayed a jones for action and a few Teamster loans into a life as a Vegas casino owner.