Quick Facts

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…

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…

Quick Fact – Temporary Casino Plague

1935 Avoiding darkness, they only emerged amid brightness, real or artificial. They congregated outside of every Reno, Nevada gambling club at the beginning of June, pestering the guests as they entered and exited. One night…

Quick Fact – Gambling at Both Ends

1947 When the luxurious 12-story Mapes hotel opened in Reno, Nevada on Saturday, December 27, 1947, it boasted two casinos. One was on the river side of the main level, the other in the southwest…

Quick Fact – An “Unsuitable” Combo

1972 The brothel Ash Meadows Sky Ranch, in Lathrop Wells (today Amargosa Valley) in Nye County, accessible via an airstrip, was denied a gambling license by Nevada gaming regulators to operate four slot machines on…

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…

Quick Fact – Gambling on the Oscars

1950 For Hollywood’s Academy Awards, Las Vegas, Nevada casinos offered even money on All The King’s Men, the favorite for Best Movie. The other nominees and their odds were Battleground, 5 to 2; The Heiress,…

Quick Fact – Gambling Downs Nine Pin

1830s In this decade, moral fervor over gambling and organized crime led many United States cities to outlaw nine-pin bowling, which had been popular since colonial times. By the mid-40s, nine pin had vanished from…