Casinos / Gambling Saloons / Card Clubs / Slot Routes / Wire Services / Hotels / Racetracks / Racinos

Quick Fact – A Regular For Years

Former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was such a rabid fan of horse racing that every summer, when in nearby La Jolla for his annual physical exam, he visited Del Mar in California, where he…

Slot Machines Land on Trouble in Reno

1953 Theodore “Ted” Donaldson, 31, bought six slot machines from Joe Larango of Pyramid Securities Inc., a company with the devices in several Reno, Nevada locations, including the Oak Room casino. Donaldson paid the $1,825 cost…

Replicated Casinos: Who, Why, When and Where

1957, 1962, 1968, 1974 Over the years, entities around the world fashioned casinos for various educational and training purposes. Here are four that were based in the U.S.: 1) Instruction For Novice Players In 1957,…

Quick Fact – Beat-it-Out-of-You Approach

1957 Inside the Golden Bank Casino on a Saturday afternoon, security personnel saw Merle Naughton, 40-year-old salesman, yanking and pounding on slot machines. When they told him to leave, he did. He went across the…

Quick Fact – Engendering Envy

1929 When the only types of legal gambling in Nevada were poker, five hundred, solo, whist, parimutuel betting on horse races and slot machines with restrictions, owner Eli Francovich* installed in his Wine House club…

“Electronic Brain Upsets Vegas Blackjack Dealers”

1960 “Las Vegas seemed to be both fascinated and frightened by the little computing machine,” reported Ray Duncan in the Independent Star-News (Dec. 5, 1960). The referenced device, via a dial on its front, advised…

Cashing In, Out on Slot Machine Route

1951-1954 In October 1951, Southern California resident, Wayne H. Teipel, responded to a “For Sale” ad in the Los Angeles Examiner for a slot machine, pinball game and phonograph route business in Las Vegas, Nevada.…

A Man and His Dream: Bing Crosby Opens Horse Racetrack

1937 An armored truck, accompanied by three deputy sheriff cars, was moving $262,000 (about $4.5 million today) the 15 miles from the Del Mar racetrack in California down the coastal highway to a San Diego…

Slot Machines Go Big … and Ginormous

1960s-Today The Big Bertha introduced in the 1960s wasn’t a circus lady or a German howitzer; it was a made-in-Nevada slot machine that became iconic. Named for its size, the three-reel device stood 5 to…

Quick Fact – Spurring On Business

1968 During the grand opening of the Silver Spur casino at 221 N. Virginia Street, Reno, Nevada on July 1, 1968, the ribbon was cut with a silver spur that Audie Murphy used in the…

Mobbed Up Casino Opens in The Biggest Little City

1944 The debut of the Bonanza Club* on October 3, 1944 in Reno, Nevada, was doubly significant. Formerly the Barn Club, the new casino was regarded as one of, if not, the finest in the…

Quick Fact – Mint Cake

1964 For its eighth anniversary, the Mint hotel-casino in Las Vegas, Nevada baked a mega, 6,527-pound cake in the shape of the hotel-casino. About the size of 1,363 regular 10-inch cakes, it required: • 12,960…