Las Vegas Alert: Visit Golden Days at Golden Nugget

   You may be bummed if your name is not listed in the acknowledgments of Tom Breitling’s book, “Double or Nothing.” I know I am. It seems like practically everybody in town is there. He even admits “this may be the longest acknowledgment page you’ve ever encountered.”
   But Breitling seems genuinely grateful for all the helping hands that played a part in his unexpected and spectacular success in the business world.
   His book with Cal Fussman is subtitled “How Two Friends Risked It All to Buy One of Las Vegas’ Legendary Casinos.” So it’s a buddy tale, too.
   And an odd one at that. Breitling is from Minnesota and so conscientious that, as a paperboy, he delivered newspapers to the door so they wouldn’t get wet in the drive. His pal, Tim Poster, is a Las Vegas native so savvy he took bets on sports while a student at Bishop Gorman High School.
   They met in college and afterward developed a hotel room reservation company in 1990 that grew into an Internet travel company making $100 million by the end of the decade. The sale of Travelscape to Expedia during the dot-com boom gave the partners the money to pursue a Las Vegas dream: owning a casino.
   The pair bought the Golden Nugget in January 2004, but the big dream became the big deal a year later when they sold the downtown hotel-casino to its current owners.
    The book is an entertaining behind-the-scenes look at making it big in business, especially the thrills and scares of running a casino. But it also emphasizes the human elements of enduring — and tested — friendships. Locals will be particularly interested in this one.