Quick Fact – Gambling on the Oscars

1950 For Hollywood’s Academy Awards, Las Vegas, Nevada casinos offered even money on All The King’s Men, the favorite for Best Movie. The other nominees and their odds were Battleground, 5 to 2; The Heiress, 9 to 2; and Twelve O’Clock High, 10 to 1. In fact, Sin City had it right; the Oscar for…

Quick Fact – Gambling Downs Nine Pin

1830s In this decade, moral fervor over gambling and organized crime led many United States cities to outlaw nine-pin bowling, which had been popular since colonial times. By the mid-40s, nine pin had vanished from the country except for in Texas, where instead of illegalizing it, they taxed it at $150 per year (today, about…

Quick Fact – Gambling Trip Turns Dicey

1957 In 1957, Club Primadonna chartered passengers to and from San Francisco to the Reno, Nevada casino on “champagne tours.” On the September 28 return flight, delayed from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. due to bad weather, the plane’s engines failed near the San Francisco International Airport. The pilot shouted, “Fasten your belts, loosen your…

Slot Machines Land on Trouble in Reno

1953 Theodore “Ted” Donaldson, 31, bought six slot machines from Joe Larango of Pyramid Securities Inc., a company with the devices in several Reno, Nevada locations, including the Oak Room casino. Donaldson paid the $1,825 cost (about $17,000 today) with a check. Each slot was valued at about $900 ($8,000 today). Larango soon discovered the check…

Quick Fact – “Castle in the Sky”

1938 To draw guests, a 1938 newspaper ad for the new casino resort at Lake Tahoe in Crystal Bay touted the cinematic history of the land. It read, “All America enjoyed the beloved Will Rogers in the screen version of Frank Bacon’s Lightnin’. Calneva Lodge is built on the original location of this masterpiece —…