1951 Upon entering The Westerner casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, an electrician told the guard he’d been dispatched to repair a boiler connection. After being admitted to the utility room, he produced a pistol and disarmed the security officer with it. Next, he forced the two cage workers to open the safe, transferred its contents…
1951 Canada-born Jack Sullivan, né John D. Scarlett, had co-owned and run the Bank Club for two decades and prior to that, the Willows (it burned down in 1932) — both Reno, Nevada casino hotspots. He’d retired a mere six months before his death at age 72. He passed away on April 24, 1951 in…
1967 The month following closure of its on-site Bullpen casino, the Nevada State Prison sold the brass coins that inmates had used for decades (since 1932) for wagering and as currency. Sets, containing one coin of each denomination — $0.05, $0.10, $0.25, $0.50, $1 and $5 — went for $30 to $50 apiece, depending on their condition. Proceeds went…
1940 After some angry husbands in Los Angeles, California complained their wives were gambling away the grocery money, two vice squad officers raided the Monday night birthday party of Ann Dicker, a 73-year-old great-grandmother, at which she and seven guests were playing poker. (The policemen had climbed up the drainpipe to stealthily reach her second-floor…
1943 A site protection officer disciplined nine workers for shooting dice in a restroom and instructed them to report to the labor relations officer. This happened during the night shift at the Ford Motor Company tank assembly facility at Highland Park in Michigan, on a Friday night in April, during World War II. Four of…
1955-1956 At 9:15 a.m. on Friday, November 11, 1955, eight U.S. IRS agents entered the Club Cal-Neva in Reno, Nevada, demanding payment of $65,000 (about $600,000 today) in overdue withholding and excise taxes. When the money couldn’t be proffered, the feds wired shut the casino doors and emptied all of the tables, cashier cages and…
1957 These fortunes and statements were what appeared in the display of a particular slot machine when one read the whole reel from left to right. Short three- to five-word phrases replaced the typical fruit or other symbols. What To Do With It One such informative slot machine, manufactured in the 1920s, was spotted…
1935 Avoiding darkness, they only emerged amid brightness, real or artificial. They congregated outside of every Reno, Nevada gambling club at the beginning of June, pestering the guests as they entered and exited. One night they even went so far as to invade the Palace Club casino. They, Feltia annexa (Treitschske), or Feltia subterranea, or…
1960 “Las Vegas seemed to be both fascinated and frightened by the little computing machine,” reported Ray Duncan in the Independent Star-News (Dec. 5, 1960). The referenced device, via a dial on its front, advised blackjack players how to proceed with each hand, get another card or hold. The electronic instrument remembered the cards played…
Former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was such a rabid fan of horse racing that every summer, when in nearby La Jolla for his annual physical exam, he visited Del Mar in California, where he had a designated parking space and a private Turf Club box. Along with spectating, he wagered, frequently as much as…