Quick Fact – Last to Hear
1940 “Apparently unaware that gold has been forbidden as a medium of exchange, a tall, dark complexioned cowpuncher walked into a [Reno, Nevada] gambling club last night and startled the dealer by casually dropping a…
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1940 “Apparently unaware that gold has been forbidden as a medium of exchange, a tall, dark complexioned cowpuncher walked into a [Reno, Nevada] gambling club last night and startled the dealer by casually dropping a…
1958-1959 (Part I ran last week. If you missed it, it’s available here.) The Nevada Tax Commission withdrew the gambling license of the New Star casino’s operators — Brent Mackie and Kenneth Henton — in July…
1958 Casino workers at the New Star allegedly were caught in flagrante delicto. In April, a gambling detective — Michael MacDougall from New York — conducted a statewide, in-person survey of various gambling entities upon…
1936 An $11,800 gambling win (about $205,000 today) was the largest ever in Las Vegas to that point. The payout went to a man named A. “Blacksmith” Sweitzer after playing 21 (blackjack) for two hours, starting…
1953-1955 In fall 1953, John “Fat Jack” Galloway was playing the card game, 21, at Leo Quilici’s hotel-casino, the El Rancho Hotel, in Wells, Nevada. Fat Jack himself, in his early 40s, was the operator…
1937-1970 Card dealing was a male-dominated profession in Nevada’s casinos until 1937, when Harolds Club, in Reno, put the first woman at a 21 table to deal. Co-owner Harold Smith previously had been hiring women,…
1935 Although it was a Ponzi scheme, its lure of big money was too strong for many Renoites to resist. One chain letter business, the Opportunity Club, popped up overnight as part of the nationwide…
1948-1950 Tragedy struck when the wife of famed American novelist, John Steinbeck, was in Reno, Nevada for a quickie divorce from him after 5½ years of marriage. In 1948, while establishing residency in The Biggest…
1961 It was hot inside and outside Harolds Club in Reno, Nevada on a Wednesday afternoon in the early summer of 1961. Indoors, people gathered around to watch high-roller Lonnie Joe Chadwick on a winning…
1861-present Since becoming a U.S. territory, Nevada has undergone periods of full, partial and no legalization of gambling. Here’s a timeline of what types of games of chance legislators allowed or disallowed and when: 1861:…
1930 Silent film star, Clara Bow, spent one September evening in 1930 playing illegal gambling games at a Lake Tahoe, Nevada casino. Both winning and losing at roulette, craps, 21 and the dice game, chuck-a-luck,…