1939 With the recent discoveries of dead bodies there, Lake Mead in Southern Nevada has been in the news. The 1.5 million acres encompassing this water body and its environs have been a designated national recreation area since 1964, but a portion of them almost had become a Nevada state park three decades earlier. The…
1832-1860 Elijah Skaggs, nè Eli Harrison Skaggs (1818-1890) stands out in U.S. gambling history. He was one of the country’s cleverest card tricksters and a hugely successful gambler. More significantly, he created a franchise system for the business of crooked faro. “He probably had more to do with the spread of gambling in this country…
1949-1950 In a likely unprecedented event, with all of the necessary equipment on hand, demonstrations of how a local casino operated its race horse keno game were provided to the judge and jury in a Reno, Nevada courtroom in 1950. These presentations were part of the defense strategy during the three-day February trial regarding the…