1974 It was a successful scam that cheated the Aladdin Resort and Casino out of about $250,000 (about $1.2 million today) … while it lasted. Four men had some friends take junkets to the Las Vegas property using the identities of legitimate high-rolling customers. (With a junket, the casino provides the guests’ travel, accommodations and meals…
1933-1954 His unfavorable personal opinion about gambling notwithstanding, Patrick “Pat” A. McCarran (D-Nev.) — U.S. Senator between 1933 and 1954 — acted repeatedly on the industry’s behalf. Had he not, it’s likely gaming wouldn’t have emerged as The Silver State’s greatest revenue-producing economic sector — a positive or negative, depending on one’s view. Because gambling…
1943 The British submarine, HMS Sickle, fired a succession of torpedoes during World War II, in May, sinking an enemy vessel in Cape Ferrat, southeastern France. But one of the missiles hit a cliff in Monaco, and on exploding, it blew out the top windows of the Casino de Monte-Carlo. Consequently, the ship’s captain became…
1928-Today Members of English royalty unwittingly helped launch a new South American casino toward success in the 1930s. After Chilean President Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, in 1928, authorized creation of a gambling house, Viña del Mar (translated as “vineyard of the sea”), a city on the country’s Pacific Coast, spent $6.5 million ($95.6 million today)…
1974 The Nevada Gaming Commission, the industry’s state regulatory body, amended regulations to allow employees to own stock in a casino where they worked, without having to get a gambling license, a process that involved filling out an application, being investigated and paying the requisite costs. Jerry’s Nugget in North Las Vegas was the first gambling…
1920s-1930s Presumably to gain money, power and notoriety, two men controlled gambling in Reno, Nevada during the 1920s and 1930s through violence, payoffs, intimidation, threats and other gangster techniques. The industry mostly was illegal, with some games allowed, until 1931. Their modus operandi became the example of how it was done in Nevada, a guide…
1931 When a Southern Pacific train stopped in Reno on a Friday in May at about 9:15 p.m., four passengers disembarked to squeeze in, before continuing on, a glance at gambling, which Nevada recently had legalized. The travelers left their luggage onboard. One woman, temporarily forgetting she had one with her, left her baby there,…
1937-1938 Within a year of becoming the Maricopa County Attorney, John W. Corbin began work to expose the illegal gambling taking place in the Arizona region. He set his sights on busting the game operators and the public officials taking money to ignore their activities. “Gambling houses have been running on a wide-open basis, and slot…