1937-1939 In 1937, an Alton, Illinois woman took on the local gambling-Mobsters and the political machine … with an axe. Motivating Factors In Irene Kite‘s county of Madison, gambling was illegal, yet law enforcement and local government allowed certain establishments offering games of chance to operate openly. Her husband Carl’s card club had been…
1931-1932 In 1931, the year Nevada legalized gambling on a wide open basis, the state’s major metropolis Reno saw the introduction of the game of chance jokereno and the namesake place offering it commercially, the Jokereno Club. However, Lady Luck didn’t smile on either. Giving It A Go Two East Coast men opened the…
1894-Today In his paintings depicting dogs as humans, Cassius “Kash” Marcellus Coolidge (1844-1934) brilliantly captured the nuances of poker playing and gambling. The dogs’ expressions are spot on and the details, comedic. Perhaps Coolidge himself had some experience in that world. Along with Poker Game (above), here are the paintings, all oils on canvas, created…
1835 During Andrew Jackson’s U.S. presidency, anti-gambling sentiment began sweeping the Southern states. By 1835, it had hit Louisiana and was making its way up the Mississippi River. The fever peaked mid-year in Vicksburg, Mississippi when a band of vigilantes committed a criminal act that shocked the world. Generally, the steps taken to eradicate gambling…
Acquisitions in the same month of two hotel-casinos near one another at Lake Tahoe in Northern Nevada is anomalous and newsworthy. Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort, Spa and Casino (in Incline Village, NV) Hyatt Hotels Corp., which owned the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe since 1975, sold it for $345 million in September 2021 to…
1955-1956 In March 1955, Nevada gaming regulators accused Caliente mayor Donald E. Rowan of cheating while dealing a 21 game — which is illegal — in the Shamrock Club. He’d operated the Clover Street gambling enterprise with his partner and father-in-law Joe Colombo for seven years. Rowan had been the elected head of this southeastern…
1951 Gambling is the lifeblood of organized crime. This was U.S. Senator Estes Kefauver’s conclusion after the Special Committee on Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, which he headed, concluded its investigation. The Kefauver Committee’s work, in part, involved conducting hearings in 14 U.S. cities, during which they grilled (sometimes, unsuccessfully) about 600 witnesses, including big-time…
1886-1910 The Harmony Kid made his living as a traveling gambling cheat in the U.S. and was known from coast to coast. While primarily a card and dice sharp, Lawrence Varner (1865-1933) also perpetrated swindles related to roulette and horse races. He he obtained his moniker because he was born and lived for decades in…
1910 Nevada was to cease all gambling operations and activity by midnight September 30, 1910* per a new law, already passed.** The final night, a Friday, was unlike any other before. “Nevada is determined to be good, even if the last remnant of the old west, in which the Brooklyn and Westchester school of fiction…
In addition to Alphonse (“Al”/”Scarface”) Capone, a handful of men separately involved in illegal gambling in the States wound up confined in the United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island for another crime. The maximum security, federal prison opened in 1934 on Alcatraz Island, 1.25 miles from the coast of San Francisco, California. The facility housed 1,576…