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…
Cosmo Club (Reno, NV)
Ethnic Groups: African Americans
Ethnic Groups: Asians
Gambling
Gambling Laws / Regulations: NV Civil Rights Act
Harlem Club (Reno, NV)
It Really Happened
Moulin Rouge (Las Vegas, NV)
Nevada
New China Club (Reno, NV)
Politicians / Politics: NV Governor Grant Sawyer
Nevada Casinos’ Jim Crow
1931-1965 Nevada’s early gambling industry was “wrapped in a segregated White Curtain” (Reno Gazette-Journal, Feb. 27, 2008). Between 1931, when Nevada legalized gambling, and 1965, African Americans were banned from gambling or even being present…
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”…
California
Gambling
Games / Races: Lotteries/Sweepstakes
Games / Races: Sports Betting
It Really Happened
Law Enforcement / Judicial System: Lawsuit
San Quentin State Prison (CA)
In the Name of Charity
1937 The Great American Football Pool (GAFP) of 1937 was to be of massive scale and the first of its kind in the U.S. The organizers aimed to sell 3 million tickets at $1 apiece…
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”
Gambling License
Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Nevada Gaming Control Board
It Really Happened
Las Vegas Strip / S. Las Vegas Boulevard
Nevada
Bull’s Eye on the Gambling Industry
1955 It’s hard to believe this ever happened in Nevada. As an emergency measure, the state government approved a temporary moratorium on issuing gambling licenses. It was to last five months, until 30 days after…
Gambling
Harvey A. Gross
It Really Happened
Stateline--Nevada
Wagon Wheel Saloon and Gambling Hall / Harvey's Wagon Wheel / Harvey's Resort Hotel (Stateline, NV)
Bomb Extortion Plan Blows Up
1980 Thirty-five years ago, on August 27, an intricate bomb blasted a chasm that spanned six of the 11 floors of Harvey’s Resort Hotel. The explosion hadn’t been intentional but, rather, the result of the…
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…
Bernard "Mooney" Einstoss
Casino: Financings: Reconstruction Finance Corporation
It Really Happened
Louis "Lou" J. Wertheimer
Mapes (Reno, NV)
Nevada
United States
Was The Mapes’ Financing Unethical?
1947 The United States’ Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) co-financed construction of a gambling enterprise via its $975,000 loan for the Mapes hotel-casino in Reno, Nevada in 1947. Under Attack Three years later, Senators William Fulbright…
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel
California
Crimes / Violence / Punishments: Murder
Frank Nitti
It Really Happened
Meyer Lansky
Mobsters / Gangsters / Syndicate Members (Alleged)
Movies / Movie Stars / Entertainers / Celebrities
Movie Starlet Murdered by Mobster?
1934-1935 Today, 80 years later, the circumstances of actress Thelma Todd’s death remain a mystery, and the case still is one of Hollywood’s infamous unsolveds. A deep cover-up precluded the truth about the incident from…
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…
Gambling License
Games / Races: Roulette
It Really Happened
Law Enforcement / Judicial System: Washoe County Sheriff E. Russell Trathen--Nevada
Nevada
Northern Club (Las Vegas, NV)
Owl Club (Reno, NV)
Politicians / Politics: NV Governor Frederick "Fred" Balzar
Yes To Open Gambling: No Big Deal
1931 Despite an influx of newsmen into town to report what gambling now looked like in Nevada’s biggest city immediately following legalization, a move they described as “reviving the days of the pioneer west,” the…