1956 She wouldn’t budge. C. Johnson was playing a slot machine from a stool that was blocking the aisle in a downtown Reno, Nevada casino. When employees asked the Oakland, California resident to please shift a bit so others could pass, she adamantly refused. They offered to move the game to a spot with a…
1934 When police raided an illegal gambling den in Kingston, Washington, one of the players present, Raymond Johnson, swallowed the dice. In court after his arrest, the judge gave him 30 days to “digest” and produce the dotted cubes. Unfortunately, it’s unknown how everything turned out in this case. Photo from freeimages.com: by Katinka Kober
1840s-Today Gambler Francois Blanc, at his casino in Bad Homburg, Germany, introduced roulette in the early 1840s with only 0 and no 00 on the wheel and table layout, a choice he stuck with when he assumed control of the Monte Carlo in Monaco two decades later. This roulette version became the European standard. In…
1960-1961 Singer Tony Martin applied for a gambling license to acquire a 2 percent interest for $50,000 ($410,000 today) in the Riviera hotel-casino in Las Vegas. Investigation into his background revealed he’d served two days in a Los Angeles jail in 1947 after having pleaded guilty to speeding. Consequently, Nevada’s gambling regulators required he explain…
1934 After hiding somewhere in the building, a person robbed the Bank Club casino’s safe of $500 in silver change (about $9,000 today) between 4 and 6 p.m. on a Wednesday in early December. This particular Bank Club — a common name for Nevada gambling houses — was located in the town of Elko. The…
1970s Caesars Palace in Las Vegas extended $160 million in credit to players in 1977. This was more than the then-considered staggering $106 million cost of the original MGM Grand (early ’70s), also in Sin City, and equals roughly $641 million today. Offering credit to players who were deemed able to repay it was a common practice among…
1947 John Clark Bosworth, of Reno, 47, was sentenced to 10 days in the local jail for playing with fake $25 chips in a Las Vegas casino. ————————– What do you think? Was this a light or heavy sentence? Photo from freeimages.com, by John Nyberg
1916 The Los Angeles city jail was likely the only legalized casino in California, with gambling taking place daily to a shocking extent, declared Faith Chevaillier, a woman whom President Chester Arthur appointed to evaluate U.S. institutions. “There is often as much as $100 [$2,200 today] on the gambling table, and much money is lost…
1895 Chicago gamblers waged a long, hard legal battle against the law that allowed police and other authorities to destroy casino equipment seized during the execution of a search warrant. The fight ended, however, in 1895 with the Supreme Court of Illinois ruling that the legislation was constitutional — a major blow to casino operators and…
1947 The Golden Gulch casino re-debuted on June 27 under new management, that of James H. Lloyd. He’d had the gaming rooms and bar remodeled “with decorations featuring the ornate Victorian motif and stressing the ‘golden gulch’ theme” (Nevada State Journal, June 28, 1947). That night, all women guests were presented with a corsage of…