Animals Run Roadside Zoos
1940s A spate of “roadside zoos” opened along various Nevada highways, typically in rural areas, during the late 1940s. The owners were hustlers who lured unsuspecting tourists onto their grounds with the promise of seeing…
Quick Fact – Tunnel Thief
1904 An industrious individual tunneled beneath the Tonopah Club in Tonopah, Nevada, cut a hole through the casino floor and stole $1,000 in gold and silver from the box under the faro table – all…
00 (Double-0) Club (Las Vegas, NV)
Arcade (Las Vegas, NV)
Arizona Club (Las Vegas, NV)
Block 16--Nevada
California Hotel-Casino (Las Vegas, NV)
Crimes / Violence / Punishments: Murder
Gambling
Games / Races: Craps
Games / Races: Faro
Games / Races: Poker
Games / Races: Roulette
Gem (Las Vegas, NV)
It Really Happened
Prohibition
Red Onion (Las Vegas, NV)
Sin City
Star (Las Vegas, NV)
Turf (Las Vegas, NV)
Block 16: Sin City’s Early Days
1905-1941 Imagine in the early 1900s, a block about the length of a football field, in the Mojave Desert in Nevada where gambling, drinking and prostitution prevailed free from law enforcement’s intrusion, and where fights…
Aladdin Resort & Casino (Las Vegas, NV)
Did You Know?
Gambling License
Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Nevada Gaming Commission
Quick Facts
Quick Fact – Publisher Unsuitable
1967 New York publisher, Lyle Stuart, applied to the Nevada Gaming Commission for a gambling license to purchase 1 percent of the Aladdin Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip for $25,000 ($178,000 today).…
Unforeseen Perils of Gambling
1920 It was 3 a.m. on a Monday. About 15 men were gambling in the Desert Club. One who’d been there all night, sitting alone, watching and waiting to make his move was George Strickland.…
Quick Fact – Cheating Course
1961 A Southern Nevada business offered to teach individuals, for a flat fee of $3,000 ($24,000 today), various ways to successfully cheat slot machines. Photo from freeimages.com
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 – Siegel’s Estate
1955 When presumed-to-be-wealthy mobster, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, was slain at age 41, the estate he left was worth $35,609 (about $314,550 today). Before his murder, Siegel co-financed and oversaw completion of the Flamingo hotel-casino in…
Crimes / Violence / Punishments: Grafting
Gambling
Gambling License
Games / Races: Panguingue
Games / Races: Poker
George "Tex" Rickard
It Really Happened
Rawhide--Nevada
The Northern (Rawhide, Nevada)
Lawmen Run Amok in Rawhide
1908 Two deputy sheriffs in the mining camp of Rawhide, Nevada,* were on the take. For a regularly paid fee, they allowed establishments to operate legal games without a license and/or run banned ones as well.…
Quick Fact – Peephole Vetting
1931 Even after wide-open gambling became legal in Nevada, many of the exclusive clubs continued to vet the people who wanted entry. Someone inside the establishment would look through the peephole in the door and…
Agua Caliente Casino and Hotel (Tijuana, Mexico)
Casino de Mexicali (Mexicali, Mexico)
Casino: Takeovers
Feria Típica (Tijuana, Mexico)
Gambling
Games / Races: Baccarat
Games / Races: Bull Fighting
Games / Races: Cockfighting
Games / Races: Dog Racing
Games / Races: Faro
Games / Races: Horse Racing
Games / Races: Keno
Games / Races: Poker
Games / Races: Roulette
It Really Happened
Mexico
Monte Carlo (Tijuana, Mexico)
Owl Cafe and Theatre (Calexico, Mexico)
Politicians / Politics: Baja, CA Governor Esteban Cantu
Prohibition
Sunset Inn (Tijuana, Mexico)
Americans Head South Para Apostar
1913-1929 With various state bans on gambling and, later, a nationwide prohibition against liquor, many Americans, particularly wealthy Southern Californians, traveled to casinos in Mexican border cities to play and imbibe. “The great hegira* is in,…
Bobby Garcia
Carl "Cork" Civella
Gambling Laws / Regulations: Nevada's Black Book / Excluded Person List
Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Nevada Gaming Control Board
It Really Happened
Joe Sica
John "The Bat" Battaglia
Louis Tom Dragna
Michael "Trigger Mike" Coppola
Motel Grzebienacy
Murray "The Hump"/"The Camel" Humphreys
Nevada
Nick Civella
Sam "Momo" Giancana
The Original Black Book
1960 A cheap, spiral notebook held great power in Nevada’s gambling world for decades. It contained known U.S. mobsters whose underworld statuses and histories were such that the state gambling authorities didn’t want them anywhere…