Quick Fact – Harolds Warning
Harolds Club, a casino that debuted in Reno, Nevada in 1935, displayed signs on its property that read: “No one can win all the time. Harolds Club advises you to risk only what you can afford to lose.”
Quick Fact – Sands Silver
1956 As revelers welcomed the new year at the Sands in Las Vegas, Nevada, management gave every guest (an estimated 18,000 of them) a brand new silver dollar. Additionally, they gifted each of the 700 women in the showroom a satin bag filled with 25 silver dollars. That’s a total giveaway of $35,500 (a $311,000 value…
Quick Fact – Teachers Excluded
1957 The Washoe County School District in Northern Nevada prohibited its teachers from moonlighting as casino workers, believing they shouldn’t be seen in such places while working as educators. Photo from freeimages.com
Quick Fact – Polygraph Used
1970-1974 During the years Kings Castle in Incline Village, Nevada at Lake Tahoe was open, management routinely used polygraphs on employees, particularly for questions about cheating, theft and employment. Photo from freeimages.com: “No Lies”
Quick Fact – Equipment Carful
1920 Following abolishment of gambling in Nevada, a Los Angeles moving picture company purchased and shipped to California a carful of equipment outlawed in 1909, including roulette wheels, faro tables and chuck-a-luck games. Photo from freeimages.com: “Roulette Wheel” by Richard Styles
Quick Fact – Lady Cocoa
1975 The blaxploitation thriller, Lady Cocoa (also titled Pop Goes the Weasel), starring singer-dancer Lola Folana, San Francisco 49er Gene Washington and Pittsburgh Steeler Joe Green, was filmed in Northern Nevada. The movie climaxes with a snowmobile-versus-car chase through the lobby, around the casino and into the swimming pool of the Kings Castle resort in Incline…
Quick Fact – McGill Suit
1928 A woman named Gladys Anderson sued the McGill Club in McGill, Nevada for $5,000, which she claimed her husband had lost there playing poker. The district court, however, dismissed her case because it lacked a cause of action (a set of facts sufficient to justify a right to sue and receive compensation from another…
Quick Fact – Dice Mice
Early 1900s In The Silver State (Nevada), casinos hired men for the sole job of picking up dice that rolled off the game tables. Only these workers were allowed to touch the cubes to keep cheaters from swapping them with crooked ones.
Quick Fact – Hankow Fire
1928 Countless people died and an estimated 10,000 people lost their homes due to a ferocious fire started in a Chinese gambling den that razed a major street in the heavily populated city of Hankow. Numerous people drowned when they jumped into ponds to escape.
Quick Fact – Shills Unlicensed
1961 In Nevada, where casino operators can employ shills to play in their clubs, it was established that a licensee may not act as a shill, gambling in their own establishment. Their spouse can’t either unless playing with money other than the licensee’s personal funds. Photo from freeimages.com: by Tanya Harding