1958 Casino workers at the New Star allegedly were caught in flagrante delicto. In April, a gambling detective — Michael MacDougall from New York — conducted a statewide, in-person survey of various gambling entities upon the request of Robbins Cahill, head of the tax commission, Nevada’s gambling regulatory agency at the time. MacDougall spotted dealers…
1960s-1970s More than a half-decade after the invention of the slot machine in 1887, liquor-filled decanters in their likeness became the rage, particularly at casinos. The version (in the photo), adorned with 24-carat gold, contained Ezra Brooks, 12-year-old, 90-proof Kentucky whiskey. It was 8.5 inches tall, 4.5 inches across.
1947-1970 For some businesses, the Red Line was beneficial; for others, detrimental. The Red Line designated a rectangular region of downtown Reno, Nevada in which casinos with unlimited gambling could exist. Clubs offering gambling outside the designated area were limited to 20 slot machines and three blackjack tables. The city council officially created this district…
1911-1914 When Pancho Villa was commanding his armies in Northern Mexico, he chose for his headquarters the richly appointed Tivoli, then the largest casino in Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Photo from El Paso Public Library: By Otis A. Aultman
1948 Arthur T. Morgan belligerently stormed into the Big Hat casino on Highway 91 (outside Las Vegas, Nevada) at about 1:30 a.m. on a Friday night in spring. He immediately began heckling, threatening to shoot and goading the proprietor, Sam Baker, into a gunfight. “When we go, we’re going to go all the way, Sam,…
1954 Due to the 1953 scandal in Wells, Nevada, the Nevada Tax Commission members in June 1954 prohibited open gambling in the town of Jackpot in The Silver State, just south of its border with Idaho, along U.S. Route 93. They worried that gambling 1) couldn’t be policed easily in that remote area and 2)…
1925 As of 1915, Nevada gambling law only allowed slot machines that discharged tokens, or bingles, exchangeable for on-site merchandise; those that paid out in money or bingles redeemable for currency were forbidden. “The fact remains, however, that the illegal money machines are running unmolested all over the state and particularly in Reno, under the…
1936 A thief took the trouble of entering a Los Angeles, California café through a skylight to rob the slot and marble games. But instead of getting the heck out after that was successful, he stayed and played the machines. Unknowingly, their noise alerted a watchman, and the “victim of his own sporting instincts” was arrested…
1948-1950 In between dispatch orders, a Las Vegas, Nevada taxi driver fleetingly picked up the announcement of horse racing information on his cab radio one day in mid-October, 1948. He informed Clark County Sheriff Glen Jones, who contacted the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in Los Angeles. The agency immediately sent to Sin City two radio…
1967 When the owners of the Ponderosa — Reno, Nevada’s newest major hotel (at 515 S. Virginia Street, now the Wild Orchid) — were about to debut gambling, with a celebratory first throwing of the dice, they ran into a snag. It seems the casino bankroll was locked in the hotel safe … along with the safe key. Two…