Spindle Tricksters Clean Up
1906 A sextet of flimflammers arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada in December, set up at the corner of Main and Fremont Streets and began separating the locals from their money. ” … the spindle was…
Casino History
Frontier (Las Vegas, NV)
Gambling
Gambling History
Gaming History
Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Nevada Gaming Commission
Howard Hughes
It Really Happened
Nevada
United States
Howard Hughes’ Frontier Casino Becomes Guinea Pig
1968-1971 A couple and a third man approached a 21 table in the Frontier in Las Vegas, Nevada on a Monday afternoon. The husband, Douglas Anderson, distracted the dealer. In that moment, his wife, Beverly…
Casino History
Gambling History
Gambling License
Gaming History
Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Nevada Gaming Control Board
Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Nevada Tax Commission
It Really Happened
Law Enforcement / Judicial System: Lawsuit
Nevada
United States
Winnemucca--Nevada
How Do I Cheat? Let Me Count the Ways (Part II)
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…
Brent Mackie
Casino History
Gambling History
Gambling License
Gaming History
Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Nevada Gaming Control Board
Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Nevada Gaming Control Board: Fred Galster
Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Nevada Tax Commission
Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Nevada Tax Commission: Robbins Cahill
It Really Happened
Kenneth Henton
Nevada
New Star (Winnemucca, CA)
Politicians / Politics: Robert F. Kennedy
United States
Winnemucca--Nevada
How Do I Cheat? Let Me Count the Ways (Part I)
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…
Casino History
Crimes / Violence / Punishments: Murder
Gambling History
Gambling Laws / Regulations: NV Regulation 25
Gambling License
Gambling: Junkets
Gaming History
Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Nevada Gaming Commission
Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Nevada Gaming Control Board
Hawaii
It Really Happened
Nevada
United States
Crooks Exploit Gambling Junkets
1969-present When executives of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada hosted 12 people from Kansas City in 1969 as part of a gambling junket, it unexpectedly backfired. When their guests, after four days at the…
Gambling
Games / Races: Keno
Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Nevada Gaming Control Board
Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Nevada Gaming Control Board: Ed Olsen
It Really Happened
Law Enforcement / Judicial System: Lawsuit
Robert Van Santen
United States
Bilking of Vegas’ Nevada Club
1961-1966 Early in 1961, Michael Catrone, 60, an apartment complex owner, presented to the Nevada Club in Las Vegas a winning keno ticket for $25,000 ($198,000 today). Yet the casino’s general manager didn’t pay it…
Gambling License
Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Nevada Tax Commission
Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Nevada Tax Commission: Dudley Kline
Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Nevada Tax Commission: Robbins Cahill
It Really Happened
Leo Quilici
United States
Wells--Nevada
Scandal Hits Gambling Watchdogs
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…
Gambler (Operators/Players): Minors
Gambling
It Really Happened
Law Enforcement / Judicial System: Lawsuit
Sixty-Six (Rhyolite, NV)
The Right to Life, Liberty … and Recovery of Gambling Losses?
1906-1909 An underage young man, Master Wadell, gambled at various games from poker to faro and lost big over the winter of 1906-1907. His preferred playhouse was the Sixty-Six casino in the mining town of…
Gambling Currency: Coins
It Really Happened
Nevada
Politicians / Politics: NV Governor Charles Russell
Loophole in the Law
1955 When Nevada legislators legalized gambling in 1931, they didn’t consider one significant caveat. The omission came to light in January 1955 when an industrious Las Vegas casino patron was arrested for using Mexican 10…
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…
California
Casino History
Gambling
Gambling History
Gambling: Bucket Shopping
Gaming History
It Really Happened
Law Enforcement / Judicial System: Lawsuit
San Francisco--California
Bucket Shopper’s Dogged Fight
1911-1912 A San Francisco, California ordinance outlawed bucket shopping in 1911 — no longer was running or visiting such an enterprise legal — and one operator didn’t like it. Henry A. Moss, a bucket shop owner and…
Casino History
Did You Know?
Gambling History
Gambling: Junkets
Gaming History
Nevada
Quick Facts
United States
Quick Fact – Casino Swindlers
1974 It was a successful scam that cheated the Aladdin Resort and Casino out of about $250,000 (about $1.2 million today) … while it lasted. Four men had some friends take junkets to the Las Vegas…