nevada history

Law Enforcement on High Alert During Mob Boss’ Lake Tahoe Vacation

This is the second of a series of posts related to and leading up to the release on Dec. 6 of A Bold Gamble at Lake Tahoe: Crime and Corruption in a Casino’s Evolution by…

Lady Godiva’s Run at Lake Tahoe Hotel-Casino

This is the first of a series of posts related to and leading up to the release on Dec. 6 of A Bold Gamble at Lake Tahoe: Crime and Corruption in a Casino’s Evolution by…

In Las Vegas, Coloradan Becomes U.S.’ First Female Casino Owner

1931 Catalyzed by unexpected circumstances, Colorado-born Clara Antoinette Rowan (née Beggs) became the first woman to own a legal casino in the United States. Her husband, Thomas “Tom” George Rowan and his partner Leo Kind…

Teach Monkeys to Gamble, How Do They Then Behave?

Late 1970s, 2000s Fay and Jessica were young, capuchin monkeys living on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) campus, where two professors in the department of psychology intended to teach them how to gamble,…

Quick Fact – A Day in the Life

1851 Roving gambler William “Lucky Bill” B. Thorington’s stint in Hangtown (today Placerville, California) was brief because he literally thimblerigged a prominent local out of $1,500 to $2,000 (more than $39,000 to $52,000 today) and…

Gold Rush Era Gambler Makes Fortune in West With Thimblerig

Late 1840s-1858 A list of Western United States’ gamblers would be incomplete without William “Lucky Bill” B. Thorington.* A thimblerig master, he plied his craft in the Western mining camps and towns from Sacramento to…

Gambling History Tidbit

This week, Nevada gambling regulators removed New York mobster, Charles “Charlie Moose” Joseph Panarella, from their List of Excluded Persons. Formerly the Black Book, this compilation contains the names, photos and criminal records of personas…

Protests Deliberately Disrupt Gambling in Las Vegas

1971 Actress Jane Fonda and renowned activists led about 900 people down the Las Vegas Strip on March 6, 1971, a Saturday, in protest of welfare cutbacks.   “Today we launched a spring offensive and…

Gambling History Tidbit

Harolds Club, a casino founded in 1935 in Reno, Nevada, acted uniquely when it came to giving customers money back! Historian and author Alicia Barber explains in her report, Looking Back: The Special Refund Policy…

Reno Company Handcrafts Animated Slot Machines

1950-1956 A novel, animated gambling device began to appear in Nevada casinos in 1950. It debuted in the lobby of Reno’s Mapes hotel-casino in the fall and “got a big play from visiting Shriners,” reported the…

Crimes in Reno Casinos Raise Concern

1945-1946 In the Bank Club, a co-proprietor of a local gambling saloon, Andrew Jackson “Jack” Blackman, shot to death James Lannigan, a small-time thug, on October 30, 1944, an action for which he was acquitted. In…

Syndicate Members Usurp Father-and-Son Gambling Club

1941-1956 The Nevada Club (1941-1987) in Reno exemplifies the stereotypic mobsters-and-gambling connection that pervaded The Silver State for decades during the 1900s. The business began as Robbin and Robbin, opened by Harry Robbin, 65, and…