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…

Quick Fact – Slots Semantics

Today In the U.S. we call them slot machines and one-armed bandits. In Australia, they’re pokies. People in the United Kingdom call them fruit machines, or fruities. Other names? Photo from freeimages.com: by Tijmen van…

The Faro Fadeaway

1825-1958 The hottest game in the Old West between 1825 and 1915, faro is pretty much extinct in the United States today. If you’ve never heard of it — and you aren’t alone there —…

Thwarting Mob Activities

1950s The manufacture of slot machines, roulette wheels and other gambling equipment was big business in the United States until the mid-20th century when new federal legislation curbed it. In 1950, the Kefauver Committee, officially the…

Was The Mapes’ Financing Unethical?

1947 This year, the United States’ Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) co-financed construction of a gambling enterprise via its $975,000 loan for the Mapes hotel-casino in Reno, Nevada. Under Attack Three years later, Senators William Fulbright…

WWII: Impact on Nevada’s Gambling

1944-1945 In the final year of World War II, three related mandates hampered Nevada’s gambling clubs, but, in general, casinos willingly withstood the hits out of a sense of patriotic duty. These directives, imposed by…

Quick Fact – He Who Cheats First …

1938 During a preliminary hearing on the felony charge of using a cheating device while playing cards at a Las Vegas gambling house, Walter Eccles of Los Angeles explained that he’d used a holdout worn…

IRS Swoops Down on Casino Cash

1955-1956 At 9:15 a.m. on Friday, November 11, 1955, eight U.S. IRS agents entered the Club Cal-Neva in Reno, Nevada, demanding payment of $65,000 (about $600,000 today) in overdue withholding and excise taxes. When the…

Lawsuit: You Won’t Get Away With It

1945-1946 Alfred E. Cushman entered the Palace Club, in uniform, shortly after 5 p.m. on Sunday, November 11, 1945. Prior to that, the recently discharged U.S. Army veteran participated in the Armistice Day parade in…

Ace of Spades Defeats Card Sharp

1930 Cheating at gambling in the early 20th century in Nevada could land a person in serious trouble. That’s exactly what happened to Francis Leo Luckett, 28. A Pennsylvania native, he’d been in Reno by…

Just Like Living in Paradise

1950-Today When people are on the Las Vegas Strip, they’re really in Paradise — the town, that is. In 1950, a rumor surfaced that the City of Las Vegas’ boundaries would be expanded to include…

Quick Fact – Beginners’ Luck

1950 The $1.6 million Desert Inn resort had just opened in Las Vegas, and a gambling naif nearly put it out of business. A 22-year-old sailor, who didn’t know much about gambling, bet $1 on…