Quick Fact – Desert Getaway

Casino History, Did You Know?, El Rey Club (Searchlight, NV), Gambling History, Gambling: Charters, Gaming History, Nevada, Quick Facts, Searchlight--Nevada, United States, Willie MartelloLeave a comment

1961 This ad for the El Rey Club invited people to escape one sunny desert town (Palm Springs, California) for another (Searchlight, Nevada), as the enticement ran in the former’s newspaper, The Desert Sun. Owner Willie Martello began chartering groups of people to and from his casino this same year after he paid about $1 million of his…

Men, Please Do Not Apply

Advertisements, Casino, Gambling Saloon, Card Club Fronts / Workers / Bookmakers / Dealers, Harold S. Smith, Sr., Harolds Club (Reno, NV), It Really Happened, Las Vegas Strip / S. Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas--Nevada, Reno--Nevada2 Comments

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…