1936-1950s The Palace Club introduced a new casino game to Nevada’s “Biggest Little City” on May 1, 1936. Renoites quickly discovered it, and its popularity soared, leading to a solid run over about a decade. The emergence of this enticing gambling offering was “a major event in the development of Reno’s gaming,” Raymond Sawyer wrote…
1947 The Sonoma Inn hotel-casino debuted on May 27, 1947 at 185 W. Winnemucca Boulevard in Winnemucca in Northwestern Nevada, about halfway between Reno and Wells, likely named after the nearby Sonoma Range mountains. In 1969, the property was remodeled and renamed the Winners Inn and Casino, which is open still today. Ad from the…
1962 The City of Winnemucca in Nevada had an ordinance that prohibited women from working in a casino in which they had some ownership. Bea Hawkins, who with her husband Don, owned the Ferris Hotel and Casino,* asked the city council members to amend the ordinance on the grounds it was unconstitutional. They refused. She…
1958-1959 (Part I ran last week. If you missed it, it’s available here.) The Nevada Tax Commission withdrew the gambling license of the New Star operators — Brent Mackie and Kenneth Henton — in July 1958 after investigators allegedly witnessed 21 dealers cheating customers in eight different ways at the Winnemucca, Nevada casino. Later that month,…
1958 Casino workers at the New Star allegedly were caught in flagrante delicto. In April, a gambling detective — Michael MacDougall from New York — conducted a statewide, in-person survey of various gambling entities upon the request of Robbins Cahill, head of the tax commission, Nevada’s gambling regulatory agency at the time. MacDougall spotted dealers…