Quick Fact – Big Numbers
Mid-1870s Virginia City, Nevada, at the peak of the mining boom when the population was about 18,000, boasted one gambling house for every 150 people. That’s 120 of these places, primarily saloons! Some of the…
Casino Criminal Loses Control
1954 Late on a Saturday night in 1954, during the peak of business, an unemployed, 27-year-old railroad hand entered the Stockmen’s Hotel, in Elko, Nevada, where townspeople, miners, ranchers and tourists congregated to socialize, drink and…
Quick Fact – Gutsy Granny
1972 A 71-year-old, wheelchair-bound, California grandmother, Susan Ellyn Reid, who had a long rap sheet and various aliases, entered Harrahs Club in Reno, Nevada in July carrying a box. She gave casino personnel a typed…
Gambling
Gambling Laws / Regulations: NV Anti-Lottery Law
It Really Happened
Law Enforcement / Judicial System: Lawsuit
Opportunity Club (Reno, NV)
The Chain Letter Of The Law
1935 Although it was a Ponzi scheme, its lure of big money was too strong for many Renoites to resist. One chain letter business, the Opportunity Club, popped up overnight as part of the nationwide…
Desert Inn (Las Vegas, NV)
Gambling Laws / Regulations: Nevada's Black Book / Excluded Person List
Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Nevada Gaming Control Board
It Really Happened
Louis Tom Dragna
Nevada
Nevada’s Black Book: Civil Rights Violation?
1960-1967 Los Angeles mobsters, Louis Tom Dragna and John “The Bat” Battaglia, conversed in a hotel-casino cocktail lounge on the Las Vegas Strip one day in February 1960. But their visit was cut short when…
Emigrant Pass
Ernest Dennison
Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Nevada Tax Commission
It Really Happened
Law Enforcement / Judicial System: NV Police Superintendent Lester C. Moody
Nevada
Politicians / Politics: NV Attorney General Alan Bible
Politicians / Politics: NV Governor Vail Pittman
Roadside Zoos (Nevada)
Too Cozy With Illegal Gamblers
1948 A real or perceived protective relationship with illegal gambling operators got Nevada Police Superintendent Lester C. Moody fired. Governor Vail Pittman, who’d appointed Moody to the position two years before, terminated him in May…
California
Embassy Club (Gardena, CA)
Gambling
Gambling Laws / Regulations: CA Anti-Gambling Act
Games / Races: Poker
It Really Happened
Law Enforcement / Judicial System: CA California Attorney General Ulysses Webb
Law Enforcement / Judicial System: Lawsuit
Monterey Club (Gardena, CA)
United States
Webb’s Wacky War On Poker
1936-Present If it weren’t for gambler Ernest J. Primm’s nerve and fortitude, California’s nearly 90 card clubs wouldn’t exist today. With a gambling license from the City of Gardena (in Los Angeles County), he opened…
Did You Know?
Games / Races: Faro
George "Tex" Rickard
Goldfield Hotel (Goldfield, NV)
Nevada
Quick Facts
The Northern (Tonopah, NV)
Wyatt Earp
Quick Fact – Earp Myths
1905 Folklore has it that Wyatt Earp was the pit boss at The Northern in Goldfield, Nevada for George “Tex” Rickard, the proprietor. But it likely is false, according to Nevada historians, Jeffrey Kintop and Guy…
Allen Smiley
Club Savoy (Las Vegas, NV)
Games / Races: Craps
It Really Happened
Jack Durant
Louis "Russian Louie" Strauss
Norman Khoury
Dirty Dealings in Las Vegas
1949-1953 Only months after Cleveland bar owner, Norman Khoury’s 1949 acquisition of Club Savoy in Las Vegas, Nevada, Allen Smiley, an associate of the then-deceased Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, unexpectedly approached him. He introduced Khoury to…
Crimes / Violence / Punishments: Suicide
Gambling
It Really Happened
John Steinbeck
Newell Benningfield
West Indies Club (Reno, NV)
Mrs. John Steinbeck’s Tale of Woe
1948-1950 Tragedy struck when the wife of famed American novelist, John Steinbeck, was in Reno, Nevada for a quickie divorce from him after 5½ years of marriage. In 1948, while establishing residency in The Biggest…
Casino: Financings: Reno Arch
Club Primadonna (Reno, NV)
Colony Club (Reno, NV)
Horseshoe Club (Reno, NV)
It Really Happened
Poor Pete's (Reno, NV)
Out With The Passé
1926-present By 1963, major casino owners in Reno, Nevada thought the downtown fixture was outdated and ugly compared to their modern buildings on Virginia Street. They even offered to pay for it and its maintenance for…
Bluebell Girls
Dunes (Las Vegas, NV)
El Rancho Vegas (Las Vegas, NV)
Entertainment
Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Nevada Gaming Commission
It Really Happened
Law Enforcement / Judicial System: NV Attorney General Roger Foley
Bare Bosom Brouhaha
1958-1961 The debut of topless showgirls in Las Vegas roused disapproval — not surprising given it occurred early in the “Leave it to Beaver” era. The Stardust was the first to abandon bras and tops,…