Category
1951 Upon entering The Westerner casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, an electrician told the guard he’d been dispatched to repair a boiler connection. After being admitted to the utility room, he produced a pistol and…
1951 Canada-born Jack Sullivan, né John D. Scarlett, had co-owned and run the Bank Club for two decades and prior to that, the Willows (it burned down in 1932) — both Reno, Nevada casino hotspots.…
1967 The month following closure of its on-site Bullpen casino, the Nevada State Prison sold the brass coins that inmates had used for decades (since 1932) for wagering and as currency. Sets, containing one coin…
1940 After some angry husbands in Los Angeles, California complained their wives were gambling away the grocery money, two vice squad officers raided the Monday night birthday party of Ann Dicker, a 73-year-old great-grandmother, at…
You’ll make a date with a fat millionaire who loves…
1943 A site protection officer disciplined nine workers for shooting dice in a restroom and instructed them to report to the labor relations officer. This happened during the night shift at the Ford Motor Company…
1931-1932 Actors Clara Bow and Rex Bell gambled at the Meadows in Las Vegas in summer 1931 and racked up a $1,100 loss (about $18,000 today), for which they left an IOU. By December, the…
Today Although Texas-born Lester B. “Benny” Binion (1904-1989) no longer is with us, he remains a legend among Las Vegas casino owners and operators — gamblers, in industry parlance. Iconic even in his appearance —…
1916 The Los Angeles city jail was likely the only legalized casino in California, with gambling taking place daily to a shocking extent, declared Faith Chevaillier, a woman whom President Chester Arthur appointed to evaluate…
1913 As what the Los Angeles Times called the “the first sally in the greatest campaign that has ever been waged for the elimination of gambling” (April 7, 1913), Los Angeles Chief of Police Charles…
1870s-1920s “I want to go short 1,000 bushels of December wheat, 1 cent on the bushel.” This $10 bet was typical back in the heyday of bucket shops in the United States, between 1870 and…
1939 Las Vegas gambling houses and saloons were shut for three hours in observance of Good Friday, at the request of the local churches. It was the first time in the Nevada city’s history that such…