The Tyrant Billionaire

Hardy stated that the Venetian Hotel would establish a construction management team, and all company funds usage would need to be approved by this team, which would be accountable to all shareholders, regularly reporting on construction progress and fund usage details.

Hearing this, the family heads felt reassured. They were afraid Hardy might overspend in pursuit of extravagance like Sigel, which could result in their money going down the drain.

With things settled, the mafia family heads bid farewell one after another. Hardy looked at the agreement and smiled. These people were now onboard, and henceforth, the mafia would no longer pose a significant threat to him.

After sending them off, Hardy also returned to Los Angeles.

He was in a hurry to come back because there was a speech waiting for him.

When he made the deal with Mayer, one of the terms was to become the president of the Actors Guild, which Mayer agreed to.

Now, with the guild president election approaching, several candidates had already started campaigning, and Hardy was one of them, though he had remained quiet.

Currently, the Actors Guild has about 40,000 registered members, including film and television actors, reporters, radio personals, recording artists, singers, voice actors, and other media workers.

They were mainly based in Hollywood and New York. Don't underestimate this number while most were ordinary and bit part actors, those big stars were also included.

Their influence was substantial. Sometimes, even presidential candidates would invite these big stars to endorse them to leverage their fan base and increase their support.

Additionally, there were journalists and radio hosts whose influence wasn't small either. A pen could write someone to death, and a mouth could talk someone to death.

This was the main reason Hardy wanted to become the president of the Actors Guild, because becoming the president meant wielding a significant amount of power.

As soon as Hardy returned to Los Angeles, he received a call from Mayer. "Hardy, I heard you've formed a new casino with others, investing a $100 million?"

"Yes."

"Aren't you planning to build a new casino with us?" Mayer asked with a frown.

"Hhh, there's no conflict. Our new casino will also be built. I'm just waiting for your news," Hardy replied.

"No conflict? With a $100 million casino, once the new casino is built, everyone will be competing for business," Mayer said.

"Mr. Mayer, as I told you before, Las Vegas is a huge gold mine that one person can't exhaust. The better we build this gold mine, the more tourists we'll attract and the more we'll earn."

"Do you know about the clustering effect? By building several casinos, tourists will always think of Las Vegas first whenever they want to gamble, rather than any other place."

"I can tell you, even if ten such casinos are built in Las Vegas, it won't be saturated. There will be no shortage of tourists. All we need to do is attract them here, just like how we conduct large scale promotions before a movie release."

"And there's another reason I had to build this new casino," Hardy said, his tone becoming more serious.

"What reason?" Mayer asked curiously.

"The partners I worked with this time are all mafia families, a total of 15, representing more than half of the Mafia Commission. Originally, they all had casinos in Las Vegas, but on a smaller scale, similar to underground casinos in Los Angeles."

"Because Hardy's Grand Hotel attracted most of the tourists, their businesses took a nosedive, generating a lot of animosity. To be honest, while I'm in Las Vegas, they wouldn't dare mess with Hardy's Grand Hotel. But if another new casino is built, do you think they would tolerate such a thing?"

Mayer immediately realized the truth in this.

They had money, but they were powerless against the mafia.

Without Hardy, they wouldn't even have a chance to get involved in Las Vegas.

In later years, up until the 60s and 70s, Las Vegas casinos were firmly controlled by the mafia. It wasn't until the mafia was dealt with by Kennedy and then hit several times, causing their decline, that Wall Street and other big capitalists had a chance to enter Las Vegas, opening more casinos and hotels.

Before the mafia's decline, even powerful entities like Wall Street and big capitalists couldn't touch this profitable business.

Even Wall Street had people and things they were powerless against.

This showed that the mafia was indeed a fearsome force.

Wall Street tycoons weren't invincible either, as rich people were more afraid of death. If you played dirty with the mafia, they would play rough with you.

You never knew when your car might explode, your house might blow up, or even the cigar you smoked might explode.

Of course, the mafia's decline later on had many reasons, which won't be analyzed here. Knowing the mafia would decline in the future, Hardy planned from the start to clean up his image.

Individually, there was nothing that could be pined on him.

Even if someone knew he was a big boss behind the scenes, what of it? Without evidence, making unfounded accusations could be fatal.

As long as Hardy became powerful enough, comparable to the big eight conglomerates, even politicians wouldn't dare touch him. Who would care about your origin story then?

Profitable businesses.

HD security armed forces.

ABC Television, Universal Times, and other media.

These were Hardy's fortresses.

Money, force, and media influence—having these three meant even the US president wouldn't easily move against him.

Back to the point.

When Hardy explained the stakes, Mayer finally understood. If they pushed these mafia families too far and they united against them, forget about making money, they might not even be able to build the casino.

What if, nearing completion, a sudden explosion brought down the building? All their investment would go down the drain.

"By building a new luxury casino together with them and making money together, we eliminate the crisis and expand Las Vegas influence. Do you think my decision was wrong?" Hardy asked.

"No, I think you did the right thing, Hardy," Mayer immediately replied.