Casino History

The Dice Fall Where They May in FBI Gambling Probe, Part I

1965-1969  In its July 1966 raid of Kress Manufacturing Co. in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents seized a treasure trove of crooked gambling equipment that seemed headed to various Nevada casinos. The…

New Jersey Mobster Involved in Varied Gambling Businesses

1920s-1960s Joseph “Doc” Stacher (né Gdale Oistaczer)* was a New Jersey-based Mobster who made his foray into organized crime with Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel and Meyer Lansky’s Bugs and Meyer Mob in Manhattan, N.Y. and then…

Reputation of U.S. Gamblers as Criminals Bears Out in Europe

1961-1966 “When you bring in gamblers, you bring in trained law violators, and to expect them not to break the law is to expect the tides not to rise,” Wallace Turner wrote in Gambler’s Money.…

Investigation of the Death of Mobster-Gambler Mert Wertheimer

1958 Myrton “Mert” C. Wertheimer was murdered, William “Bill/Curly” J. Graham ordered the hit and Frank “Frankie” Frost carried it out. This was hearsay from Los Angeles Mobster and made man, Aladena James “Jimmy/The Weasel”…

Game of 21 Leads to Murder

1953-1955 When sheriff’s deputies responded to a 10:45 p.m. call from Dixie’s Log Cabin* on January 11, 1953, they found a man, injured and lying in the parking lot there. He was Raymond “Bud” Dutcher,…

Nevada Casino Patrons From California Meet Horrendous Fate

1969 A group of Southern Californians, winding down from a Monday night of gambling at the El Capitan Club in Hawthorne, Nevada, were on the “Gamblers Special” flight back home. The plane never made it.…

The Powerful Lure of a Bedazzling Jackpot

Happy New Year!! 1907-1945 Wanting to kick off 2021 with a positive blog post and being inspired by the $15.5 million jackpot win on Christmas Eve at Las Vegas’ Suncoast Hotel and Casino, we sought…

Carlin Hotelman Turns Slot Machine Loser When He Violates Gambling Law

1947-1960 One Carlin, Nevada business owner learned the hard way that the state didn’t tolerate gambling operators cheating the players.  Gino Quilici just had been granted a gambling license in August 1952 for the State…

Hotel-Casino Landlord, President Nixon Transact Win-Win Deal

1924-1995 A Miami, Florida businessman and convicted felon, involved with at least one Nevada casino in the 1960s, later got special consideration from President Richard M. Nixon. Gambling History Calvin Kovens bought The Sierra Tahoe…

Gamblers Put the Squeeze On National Football League Players

1946-1947 Alvin J. Paris ingratiated himself with two New York Giants football players by inviting them to parties at his apartment and taking them to nightclubs. He bet on a Giants game and gave them…

Nevada Casino Dollar Tokens Quickly Become Hot Commodity

1965-1966 When Nevada’s casinos switched the form of currency accepted in their $1 slot machines to a token from the nearly extinct silver coin in 1965, it had an unexpected result. People around the world…

Spite Leads to Creation and Destruction of World's "Most Sumptuous" Casino

1929-1933 Le Casino Municipal in Nice, France refused to cash Frank Jay Gould’s check so he could keep gambling there. This irked him. Gould wasn’t just a member of the bourgeoisie. Rather, he was an…