1945-1955

In the late 1940s, three bookies — or commissioners, as they preferred to be called — operated on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California under the name, Golden News Service. Hy Goldbaum, George Capri and Edward Cooke, all in their late 40s or early 50s at the time, specialized in assuming large bets that solo bookies couldn’t carry, and covering or placing them nationally with other bookmakers, which earned them the moniker, the bookie’s bookies.

The trio left California in 1949 and went to Las Vegas, Nevada, where they could ply their trade legally. Goldbaum went on to work at the Flamingo and the Stardust.

Two years later, the men became ensnared in a federal crackdown on bookmakers and were charged with income tax evasion and conspiracy, resulting from their having filed fraudulent returns. The government claimed the men together had done $6 million in business in California (about $70 million today!), but had only claimed income of $289,000 ($3.3 million today). Goldbaum also was charged individually for under-reporting his income.

They were convicted on 11 of 13 counts of tax evasion and conspiracy and sentenced to three years per count to be served concurrently.

“I’m convinced that a general conspiracy existed to defraud the laws of the United States, of Nevada and of California,” said the judge (Reno Evening Gazette, Feb. 5, 1952), but he also noted he imposed a lenient punishment because the defendants had been cooperative.

The U.S., however, wasn’t done with Goldbaum. The government filed a $1.6 million tax lien against him for past personal taxes it claimed he owed.

Time Served

After two years and five months at the McNeil Island Corrections Center, the three “commissioners” were released on $10,000 ($89,000 today) bail each, pending the outcome of their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1955, it looked like they might catch a break when the justices ordered the lower federal court to reconsider its ruling.

But the court of appeals in California affirmed its earlier decision, making the case overall a win for the federal government.

Photo from freeimages.com: “Graphic of Abacus” by Cyndi Papia

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1940s

A spate of “roadside zoos” opened along various Nevada highways, typically in rural areas, during the late 1940s.

The owners were hustlers who lured unsuspecting tourists onto their grounds with the promise of seeing exotic birds, reptiles and/or wild animals then swindled them out of money via games of chance.

The ruse often involved the three-dice game chuck-a-luck or a variation thereof. Although uncommon in casinos, chuck-a-luck was legal, but “thieving and cheating games” weren’t (Nevada State Journal, April 1, 1945).

Chuck-a-luck’s odds greatly disfavored the players who, on average, lost more than they won — and that was with legitimate dice.

“A shill, posing as another tourist, usually draws the victim into the game which involves eight dice, a “contract” supposed to govern the same, a fast and not always accurate count of the dice by the operator, and a process by which the player loses all when he is no longer able to add to his stake,” explained the Reno Evening Gazette (May 23, 1947).

Numerous travelers complained to local officials about being fleeced at these places. The state governor, the attorney general and other officials despised these enterprises and wanted them eliminated as they stained Nevada’s reputation. The state legislature, in early 1947, passed a law prohibiting these fronts for games that victims couldn’t win, thinking that would eliminate them. However, Nevada police superintendent, Lester C. Moody, didn’t seem to be getting it done from a law enforcement standpoint.

They’re Baaaack. . .

But it didn’t; a minor alteration allowed the racket to continue. Owners simply switched their bait from animals to a museum, which was legal, and continued bilking visitors out of their cash. One such operator was Robert Lee Thomas, who ran such an establishment in Rhyolite off of Highway 95.

“Nevada, noted for its fair play, strong men and decisive action, is lying down while racketeers, most of them of unknown reputation, move in and take a haul of thousands of dollars a day from unsuspecting tourists,” wrote Paul F. Gardner (Nevada State Journal, June 1, 1947).

Victims kept complaining to city and state authorities. The allegations included:

• The racketeers told them they couldn’t stop playing and take their winnings but, instead, had to double up and keep on.

• When they’d protested, menacing men “roughly and threateningly” ejected them from the property (Nevada State Journal, June 1, 1947).

• When they’d said they intended to report them to the attorney general, the con artists warned them via veiled threats to keep quiet.

Mr. and Mrs. Fowler of Los Angeles, California, claimed they’d been taken for $15,500 in traveler’s checks (a $164,500 value today) at Ernest Dennison’s Emigrant Pass establishment on Highway 40 (Interstate 80 today). When the couple entered the place, they were cajoled, on the pretext it was legitimate, into playing Badger the Old Cowboy, a form of chuck-a-luck. In the game, the player throws eight dice hoping to make a high or low total score with them. 

A Palo Alto, California, man asserted he’d lost $60 while participating in a chuck-a-luck game at the Nevada Trading Post on Highway 40; Mr. and Mrs. Hill, Alameda, California, residents, lost $100 in a similar way.

Some victims found themselves without money to return home and wound up stranded.

Stricter policing — revoking the owner’s licenses or arresting those operating illegally — eventually eradicated these roadside con game joints for good.

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