1946 A tastefully attired gent in his 40s sat at a craps table around 7 p.m. on a March Tuesday and began to wager with bundles of $1,000 ($12,000 today). After betting Harolds Club’s house limit for a while, which yielded $7,500 a point on a win, management waived it. The game lasted 36 hours,…
1936 When brothers, Harold S. Smith, Sr. and Raymond A. Smith, opened a small casino called Harolds Club in Reno, Nevada, the main attraction was mouse roulette “where customers bet their small change on what color or number a scampering rodent would choose to rest up from his running,” wrote Robert Laxalt in Nevada: A…
1968-1969 Can you imagine if Denny’s was in Nevada’s casino business? Well, it nearly happened. In 1968 Denny’s Restaurants Inc. had reached an agreement to acquire Caesars Palace in Las Vegas but didn’t go through with it. The next year, it negotiated to acquire the corporation that owned the Cal-Neva Lodge in Crystal Bay (at…
1904-1905 Criminal drama occurred between two men late one November morning in the Wieland saloon in Reno, Nevada in 1904. James Mann, a Wyoming man who sometimes worked in Silver State gambling clubs — the Louvre saloon and Oberon bar — had been imbibing for some time inside the Wieland. He jokingly began to spar with…
1970-1971 In the summer of 1970, a package and suitcase found in a Sparks Nugget motor lodge room in Nevada with a note affixed saying to please deliver the items to Nugget owner John Ascuaga’s office. A $20 bill was attached as a tip. A few days later, Nugget manager Gil Padroli opened the package.…
1937-1970 Card dealing was a male-dominated profession in Nevada’s casinos until 1937, when Harolds Club, in Reno, put the first woman at a 21 table to deal. Co-owner Harold Smith previously had been hiring women, mostly family members, for other jobs on the gambling club floor — chip stacking and roulette wheel spinning, for instance…
1972 A 71-year-old, wheelchair-bound, California grandmother, Susan Ellyn Reid, who had a long rap sheet and various aliases, entered Harrahs Club in Reno, Nevada in July carrying a box. She gave casino personnel a typed note that demanded $100,000 and indicated she was holding a bomb. It revealed kidnappers were holding her grandson hostage, so…
1935 Although it was a Ponzi scheme, its lure of big money was too strong for many Renoites to resist. One chain letter business, the Opportunity Club, popped up overnight as part of the nationwide craze in 1935. In five days, it garnered more than 5,000 participants (about one-quarter of Reno, Nevada’s population then). “The…
1887 A newspaper blurb touting the availability of gambling in Reno, Nevada titled, A Feast for the Gamblers, read: “Those who delight in gambling sports can be accommodated in Reno … no less than thirty-one games are in full blast. They comprise seven stud poker, two wheel games, one rouge-et-noir, one Ichi ban, six faro,…
1948-1950 Tragedy struck when the wife of famed American novelist, John Steinbeck, was in Reno, Nevada for a quickie divorce from him after 5½ years of marriage. In 1948, while establishing residency in The Biggest Little City, Gwyndolyn “Gwyn” Conger Steinbeck developed a relationship with Leonard Wolff, a wealthy, former U.S. Army Air Forces bombardier…