Quick Fact – Peephole Vetting
1931 Even after wide-open gambling became legal in Nevada, many of the exclusive clubs continued to vet the people who wanted entry. Someone inside the establishment would look through the peephole in the door and…
Quick Fact – Gambling Minors
1888 When select games of chance were legal in Nevada, so many youths under age 21 regularly were frequenting the gambling clubs (which was illegal) that the police threatened to make an example of some…
Quick Fact – Harolds Warning
Harolds Club, a casino that debuted in Reno, Nevada in 1935, displayed signs on its property that read: “No one can win all the time. Harolds Club advises you to risk only what you can…
Quick Fact – Sands Silver
1956 As revelers welcomed the new year at the Sands hotel-casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, management gave every guest (an estimated 18,000 of them) a brand new silver dollar. Additionally, they gifted each of the 700…
Quick Fact – Teachers Excluded
1957 The Washoe County School District in Northern Nevada prohibited its teachers from moonlighting as casino workers, believing they shouldn’t be seen in such places while working as educators. Photo from freeimages.com: “Chalk and Eraser”…
Quick Fact – Polygraph Used
1970-1974 During the years Kings Castle at Lake Tahoe in Northern Nevada was open, management routinely used polygraphs on employees, particularly for questions about cheating, theft and employment. Photo from freeimages.com: “No Lies”
Quick Fact – Lady Cocoa
1975 The blaxploitation thriller, Lady Cocoa (also titled Pop Goes the Weasel), was filmed in Northern Nevada. It starred singer-dancer Lola Folana, former San Francisco 49er Gene Washington and former Pittsburgh Steeler Joe Green, The…
Quick Fact – Dice Mice
Early 1900s In The Silver State (Nevada), casinos hired men for the sole job of picking up dice that rolled off the game tables. Only these workers were allowed to touch the cubes to keep cheaters…
Quick Fact – Hankow Fire
1928 Countless people died and an estimated 10,000 people lost their homes due to a ferocious fire started in a gambling den that razed a major street in the heavily populated city of Hankow, China.…
Quick Fact – Gambling Hours
1889 Nevada passed a law mandating that gambling houses couldn’t open any earlier than 6 a.m. and couldn’t close any later than midnight. The sentence for violation was a $200 to $500 fine and/or 30…
Quick Fact – WPA Mandate
1937 The director of the Works Progress Administration, the New Deal agency that employed individuals to construct public works projects, informed all Nevada workers that it wouldn’t tolerate “gambling, drinking or other unnecessary expenditure” and…
Quick Fact – Playboy Casino
1971 Adult magazine publisher Hugh Hefner announced to the media that in two years’ time, Nevada would be home to a Playboy casino in either Las Vegas or on Lake Tahoe’s South Shore. It didn’t…