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Casinos / Gambling Saloons / Card Clubs / Slot Routes / Wire Services / Hotels / Racetracks / Racinos Did You Know? Gambling Games / Races: Bingo Games / Races: Craps Quick Facts

Quick Fact – Playing Incentives

1947 To keep players gambling at their clubs, Las Vegas, Nevada casinos boosted incentives with offerings such as double odds on craps, bingo prizes of $1,000 ($10,900 today), extra slot machine jackpots and brand new…

Did You Know? Quick Facts

Quick Fact – Slot Keys

1942 The Las Vegas, Nevada Board of Commissioners ordered all commercial slot machine owners to drop off to the local police station a master key for each of their devices to: • Ensure the devices…

Did You Know? Gambling Gambling Currency: Chips Quick Facts

Quick Fact – Chip Deposit

1948 A guest of the Flamingo hotel-casino in Las Vegas, Nevada accidentally took home a $5 ($50 today) gambling chip then deposited it into the Bank of Arizona. The bank mailed to the Flamingo the…

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).…

Did You Know? Gambling Quick Facts

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…

Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel Did You Know? Quick Facts

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…

Did You Know? Gambling Currency: Coins Nevada Quick Facts Sands (Las Vegas, NV)

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…

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…

Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Internal Revenue Service It Really Happened Nevada

Hey, IRS, Give ‘Em Back!

1961 It was hot inside and outside Harolds Club in Reno, Nevada on a Wednesday afternoon in the early summer of 1961. Indoors, people gathered around to watch high-roller Lonnie Joe Chadwick on a winning…