1941-1952

The 1941 breakout of war between the U.S. and Japan started a series of deleterious events for Nevada’s first tango parlor Reno Club, Inc. and its proprietors. These included a tangle with a newcomer to the region’s gambling industry, William “Bill” F. Harrah.

Longstanding Bingo Business

A group of Japanese-American men, all U.S. citizens, debuted a gaming club in June 1931 at 232 N. Virginia Street in The Biggest Little City. Along with tango (also called bingo), the place  offered hazard, 21, craps and roulette. The owners were:

• Ben Furuta, president
• Fred Taketo Aoyama, vice president and assistant manager
• Fred Y. Yamagishi, secretary
• Y. Yamagishi (a younger relative of Fred Y.), manager

(Furuta lived in California, but the others were Northern Nevada residents.)

Immediately, Reno Club, Inc. was successful. It was the only tango salon in town until Bill Harrah came on the scene in 1937. His first Reno tango enterprise was on Center Street, outside of the city’s gambling core, and, thus, Harrah closed it after only a few months. His next, which he called Plaza Tango, was on Commercial Row. In March 1940, he added a second tango enterprise, next door to Reno Club, Inc., at 242 N. Virginia Street.

Beginning of the End

Once the U.S. declared war on Japan, on December 8, 1941, all people of Japanese descent living in the States were considered the enemy and treated as such. The owners of Reno Club, Inc. were no exception. For starters, the U.S. federal government impounded their money, leaving them with no capital with which to operate their gambling business.

Also, Furuta was interned in the Poston War Relocation Authority concentration camp in southwestern Arizona, close to the California border and near the town of Parker.  

The elder Yamagishi was arrested but released on parole, according to a newspaper article.

Aoyama was drafted but not called to serve.  

Given their tenuous financial position and alien status, Reno Club, Inc.’s proprietors asked Harrah if he wanted to acquire their enterprise. He offered to pay $20,000 ($337,000 today) for it. About a week later, when the owners told Harrah they agreed to the deal, he indicated the offer price no longer stood and now was $12,500 ($210,000 today), they reported. Consequently, they refused to sell to him.

May 1942

Instead, they renegotiated their lease agreement on their club’s building, with the owner, Frank Quinn of Young Investment Co.

The document outlined that Harrah could lease the premises for $350 (about $5,900 today) a month for a year, and if the war wasn’t over by that point, the lease would revert to month by month. It would remain in effect “until the general treaty of peace has been concluded between the Axis Nations on the one part and the United Nations on the other part” or until October 26, 1948, whichever came first (Nevada State Journal, July 16, 1947).

Right away, Harrah assumed the space and advertised another bingo club.

September 1945

When the war ended for the U.S. on September 1, 1945, the Reno Club, Inc. owners — now Fred and Y. Yamagishi and Fred Aoyama — sought to get back their gambling establishment. However, Harrah refused to vacate the premises, saying he didn’t have to until a peace treaty was signed between Japan and the States. (Typically, peace treaties aren’t signed until seven or more years after hostilities end, and until such a treaty is in place, those considered enemy aliens during the war technically retained that status.)

Instead of fighting for the return of their business, Aoyama and the Yamagishis sold it to the O’Keefes: James L., Charles P. and Lottie M. But they couldn’t operate it either because Harrah wouldn’t vacate it.

Another War, This One In Court

What followed was a five-year-long legal battle between the O’Keefes and Young Investment Co. and/or Harrah.

September 1946

To get Harrah out of their Reno Club, Inc., the O’Keefes sued the landlord Young Investment Co. The O’Keefes claimed Harrah had no right to occupy the premises now that the war was over. Young Investment, on the other hand, asserted that, according to the lease, Harrah was entitled to stay there until a peace treaty was effected or the lease ended in October 1948.

Later in September, Judge William McKnight of the district court ruled against the O’Keefes, and Harrah stayed put. The O’Keefes appealed.

July 1947

Next, the Nevada Supreme Court heard the case. The judges reversed the decision and returned the case to the lower court to be tried again.

September 1947

At the second trial in district court, Judge Frank McNamee of Las Vegas presided. Also, Harrah was a defendant alongside Young Investment.

February 1948

McNamee ruled differently than McKnight had and ordered Harrah to clear out of Reno Club, Inc.’s premises. But Harrah didn’t. Instead, he appealed to the state supreme court.

October 1948

Before the case was even presented to the supreme court judges, October 26 came around, thereby terminating the lease on 232 N. Virginia St. The gambler moved out of Reno Club, Inc. that day. The next month, the O’Keefes reopened Reno Club Inc. (and eliminated the comma from the name).

The Nevada Supreme Court upheld McNamee’s 1948 ruling.

The Exclamation Point

May 1952

The O’Keefes again sued Harrah, this time seeking damages for the four months between June 15, 1946 and October 26, 1946, during which, according to the lawsuit, he’d illegally occupied Reno Club, Inc. This period was before the initial district court ruling in the O’Keefes versus Young Investment case. The O’Keefes asked for $133,632 (about $1.4 million today). The amount consisted of rent, at $100 ($1,000 today) a day, and $43,300 ($448,000 today) for use of the gambling business’ personal property.

Judge A.J. Maestretti determined the O’Keefes weren’t entitled to damages for any period before McNamee’s February 1948 ruling but were for the six months after that. Consequently, Maestretti awarded them $8,155 ($84,400 today) for rent, at $105 per day.

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What do you think? Should Bill Harrah have vacated the Reno Club, Inc. premises when the war between the U.S. and Japan ended or not?

Sources

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 the 1955 legislative session adjourned.

The freeze applied only to applications submitted to the tax commission after the legislation went into effect, not those already filed and pending. Naturally, immediately preceding enactment of Assembly Bill 104, a slew of new applications entered the system.

The moratorium was to fend off public attacks on Nevada’s $89 million ($791 million today) a year gambling industry for being dominated by mobsters and to show the public the state was tackling the problem. Nevada’s legislators were to use the moratorium period to consider revising the state’s few gambling laws.

The licensing suspension was badly received, particularly in Southern Nevada where certain parties believed it was the legislators’ way of curbing growth on the Las Vegas Strip. Even tax commission members publicly criticized it.

“Many of the legitimate honest people who live in Nevada and have lived here a long time are being held up by this moratorium, and they are not the people who are causing all this trouble,” said Paul McDermitt, tax commissioner of Las Vegas. “I feel that some of the larger licenses are the crux of the thing” (Nevada State Journal, Feb. 3, 1955).

Gov. Charles Russell, the commission chairman, complained that when the moratorium had first been run by him, it was to encompass all applications, with which he agreed. Yet, the law the legislature passed exempted those that were pending. The chances are pretty good shady characters were linked to at least one of those.

Step Toward Greater Control

During that legislative session, the state Assembly and Senate both introduced bills requiring creation of a three-member gambling control board—Assembly Bill 236 and Senate Bill 170, respectively.

AB236 would transfer all gambling control from the tax commission to the new agency whereas SB170 would allow the board to make recommendations on licensing actions to the tax commission, which would have the ultimate say. Under AB236, the governor would appoint the members from a list of candidates compiled by a legislative committee while SB170 would allow the governor to appoint those of his own choosing who then would have to meet tax commission approval. 

SB170 prevailed, establishing the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB). It afforded the NGCB the power to determine which applicants were suitable for gambling licenses.

After passing that bill in March, legislators quickly repealed the moratorium, which had been in effect for only two months.

Sources

Clip art: by Dosnerd90