Quick Fact – Operation Penalty
1937 At a time when wide-open gambling was legal in Nevada (as of 1931), the penalty for operating a game of chance without a license was 60 days in the county jail or a $120…
Quick Fact – First Floor
1869, 1877, 1905 The 1869 statute partially legalizing gambling in Nevada prohibited any such operations in first floor rooms. An 1877 revision allowed gambling in back rooms of a ground level in certain small counties.…
Quick Fact – Shills Unlicensed
1961 In Nevada, where casino operators can employ shills to play in their clubs, it was established that a licensee may not act as a shill, gambling in their own establishment. Their spouse can’t either…
Quick Fact – Seer Balzar
1930 In December, while vacationing in Southern California, Nevada Governor Frederick “Fred” Balzar — foretelling the future — told reporters that gambling already was wide open in his state and that a bill making it…
A.A. Baroni
Block N (Reno, NV)
Casino History
Elite Cigar Store (Reno, NV)
Gambling
Gambling Currency
Gambling History
Gaming History
It Really Happened
Nevada
Nevada Committee on Good Laws
Overland Hotel (Reno, NV)
Washoe Lunch Counter (Reno, NV)
The Truth Lies Within
1925 As of 1915, Nevada gambling law only allowed slot machines that discharged tokens, or bingles, exchangeable for on-site merchandise; those that paid out in money or bingles redeemable for currency were forbidden. “The fact…
Casino History
Did You Know?
Gambling
Gambling History
Gambling: Bookmaking
Games / Races: Horse Racing
Gaming History
Nevada
Quick Facts
United States
Quick Fact – Nevada Bookmaking Legalized
1941 In an override of Governor Edward Carville’s veto, Nevada legislators legalized bookmaking. The law explained that “the receiving of bets or wagers on horse races held without the state of Nevada shall be deemed to be…
Desert Inn (Las Vegas, NV)
Gambling Laws / Regulations: Nevada's Black Book / Excluded Person List
Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Nevada Gaming Control Board
It Really Happened
Louis Tom Dragna
Nevada
Nevada’s Black Book: Civil Rights Violation?
1960-1967 Los Angeles mobsters, Louis Tom Dragna and John “The Bat” Battaglia, conversed in a hotel-casino cocktail lounge on the Las Vegas Strip one day in February 1960. But their visit was cut short when…
Allen Smiley
Club Savoy (Las Vegas, NV)
Games / Races: Craps
It Really Happened
Jack Durant
Louis "Russian Louie" Strauss
Norman Khoury
Dirty Dealings in Las Vegas
1949-1953 Only months after Cleveland bar owner, Norman Khoury’s 1949 acquisition of Club Savoy in Las Vegas, Nevada, Allen Smiley, an associate of the then-deceased Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, unexpectedly approached him. He introduced Khoury to…
Gambling
It Really Happened
Nevada
Politicians / Politics: Elections
Politicians / Politics: Richard Nixon
Politicians / Politics: U.S. President John F. Kennedy
Quick Facts
Quick Fact – Political Bets
1960 Bookies throughout Nevada had been taking wagers right and left on who’d win the upcoming U.S. presidential election — Senator John F. Kennedy (Dem.) or Vice President Richard Nixon (Rep.). Suddenly, in November, they…
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…
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…