Quick Fact – Store Slots
1967 Nevada legislators proposed a bill that would disallow any future installation of slot machines in grocery and drug stores. It died, though, in the Senate Taxation Committee.
The Original Black Book
1960 A cheap, spiral notebook held great power in Nevada’s gambling world for decades. It contained known U.S. mobsters whose underworld statuses and histories were such that the state gambling authorities didn’t want them anywhere near The Silver State’s casinos. This was a problem as these undesirables frequented major gambling operations in the state. Nevada…
Quick Fact – Gambling Minors
1888 When select games of chance were legal in Nevada, so many youths under age 21 regularly were frequenting the gambling clubs (which was illegal) that the police threatened to make an example of some of them. Photo from freeimages.com, by Craig Matchett
Performing Pachyderm
1962-1999 You’ve likely heard of Dumbo, Horton and Babar, but what about Bertha? Real, unlike the others, Bertha is an elephant renowned for having performed in shows at the Nugget hotel-casino, in Sparks, Nevada, for 38 years! Former Nugget owner, John Ascuaga, bought Bertha in 1962 for $8,000 (that’s $63,000 in today’s dollars) from a…
Quick Fact – Harolds Warning
Harolds Club, a casino that debuted in Reno, Nevada in 1935, displayed signs on its property that read: “No one can win all the time. Harolds Club advises you to risk only what you can afford to lose.”
Bad Blood Between Casino Dealers
1935 Police discovered John S. Parks, a 67 year old, carrying a loaded Colt 45 automatic on a downtown Reno, Nevada street around midnight on a July Monday. With blood streaming from his nose and smeared on his face and clothes, Parks refused to say what had caused his injuries. After taking him to the…
Quick Fact – Sands Silver
1956 As revelers welcomed the new year at the Sands 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 women in the showroom a satin bag filled with 25 silver dollars. That’s a total giveaway of $35,500 (a $311,000 value…
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 in the Silver State’s Caucasian-owned casinos, for fear their presence would scare away white patrons. Typically, any black person who…
Quick Fact – Teachers Excluded
1957 The Washoe County School District in Northern Nevada prohibited its teachers from moonlighting as casino workers, believing they shouldn’t be seen in such places while working as educators. Photo from freeimages.com
In the Name of Charity
1937 The Great American Football Pool (GAFP) of 1937 was to be of massive scale and the first of its kind in the U.S. The organizers aimed to sell 3 million tickets at $1 apiece and award sizable prizes: $100,000 to the first place winner, $50,000 to the second and $25,000 to the third in…