1940

After some angry husbands in Los Angeles, California complained their wives were gambling away the grocery money, two vice squad officers raided the Monday night birthday party of Ann Dicker, a 73-year-old great-grandmother, at which she and seven guests were playing poker. (The policemen had climbed up the drainpipe to stealthily reach her second-floor apartment.)

The surprise intrusion yielded a pot of $2.70, “as it was a five-cent limit affair.”

The ladies were arrested, taken to jail and fined $10 apiece. (It was Dicker’s third arrest and fine for illegal gambling.)

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“A disgusting travesty on justice,” the police commissioner said of the arrests (Reno Evening Gazette, Aug. 15, 1940).

1953

1960-1961

Singer Tony Martin applied for a gambling license to acquire a 2 percent interest for $50,000 ($410,000 today) in the Riviera hotel-casino in Las Vegas. Investigation into his background revealed he’d served two days in a Los Angeles jail in 1947 after having pleaded guilty to speeding.

Consequently, Nevada’s gambling regulators required he explain the arrest and why he hadn’t disclosed it on his application before they’d consider him for the permit.

Martin did so, to their satisfaction, and received a gambling license in spring 1961.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons: by NBC Radio

1947

John Clark Bosworth, of Reno, 47, was sentenced to 10 days in the local jail for playing with fake $25 chips in a Las Vegas casino.

What do you think? Was this a light or heavy sentence?

Photo from freeimages.com, by John Nyberg