1934 After Nevada legalized gambling in 1931, a faction opposed to the industry fought to have it eradicated. “A group of Nevada citizens felt there was a growing protest against the injury being done our state by gambling — not only because of the evil done in depriving needy citizens of their depressed earnings without…
1941 Ten years after Nevada legalized gambling and shortened the residency requirement for divorce from six months to six weeks, Montana took steps to compete. Bills to legalize gambling and to allow 30-day divorces were introduced to the state legislature. Neither made it through, leaving dude ranchers and many others upset about the potential economic…
1883-1884 A gambling affinity, in part, did in Everton J. Conger’s career as associate justice of the Territory of Montana. President Chester A. Arthur suspended him in March 1883. Conger had served three years in that role, beginning in 1880. Along with his penchant for playing games of chance, legal there at the time, reasons…
1972 Recognize these cars? A Pinto, Chevelle, Javelin and Datsun 240Z? Harrah’s hotel-casino in Reno, Nevada gave them away as well as cash in four weekly drawings for $35,000 worth of prizes ($205,000 today) over the winter holidays in 1972.
1959 In February, The New York Times outed Clifford A. Jones. It brought to light that he held gambling interests in and out of Nevada, which The Silver State’s gaming law then prohibited. It was no secret that Jones owned shares in the Thunderbird, Palace Club, Golden Nugget and Lucky Strike casinos in Las Vegas.…
1933 When panhandling in Bakersfield, California, an Arthur J. Hayden received 25 cents ($4.70 today), which he took to a casino and parlayed into $690 ($13,000 today). The next day he grew his winnings to $1,000 ($19,000 today), which he put in a postal savings account. When he went back to begging on the street,…
1924-1932 The story of the estate of a long-ago Nevada gambler after his passing is strange and unfortunate. John Quinn was a man who’d lost and made large fortunes in gambling and mining stock deals throughout The Silver State and other parts of the West. He’d opened the first saloon-gambling house in the mining town…
1949 The article, “Las Vegas Gamblers Arming in Control Battle,” ran on the front page of a Los Angeles newspaper in the third week of December, to the chagrin of Nevada gambling regulators, casino owners, officers of the law and other industry representatives. The story reported that in the new iteration of Sin City: •…
1975-1976 Nevada’s infamous “Black Book,” which contains information about the unsavory individuals who are banned from casinos, still exists today but under a different moniker. In 1975, citizen Beni Casselle expressed to the state gaming commission’s chairman “dissatisfaction with the negative connotation inherent thru the constant usage of the catchy-phrase Nevada black book, especially as…
1890-1910 The heyday of the Monte Carlo casino resort in Monaco was The Roaring Twenties, but that was due in large part to the solid foundation laid by François Blanc decades earlier, who stepped in after its seven initial, turbulent years. The casino actually began in 1856 as two different gambling houses that later were…