1905 A Las Vegas, Nevada newspaper commented on the increasing popularity of gambling among ladies: “Gambling made fashionable among women is a rather serious matter. It is bad enough among men, but when the mania extends to women, who are held tighter in its grasp, the moralist has special reason to fear the consequences” (Las…
1954 Late on a Saturday night in 1954, during the peak of business, an unemployed, 27-year-old railroad hand entered the Stockmen’s Hotel in Elko, Nevada where townspeople, miners, ranchers and tourists congregated to socialize, drink and gamble. Silvus Armandus approached the casino cashier’s cage and demanded: “Hand over your money and don’t make a sound.” The…
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…
1890 Judge Beckley Campbell conducted court in a Benicia, California saloon. After hearing the evidence and deciding on a verdict in cases, he meted out punishments based on the result of tossing two dice in a cigar box. Double fours, for instance, would mean eight days or months behind bars, depending on the crime. With…
1960-1967 Los Angeles mobsters, Louis Tom Dragna and John “The Bat” Battaglia, conversed in a hotel-casino cocktail lounge on the Las Vegas Strip one day in February 1960. But their visit was cut short when Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) agents appeared with local police who arrested the two. They charged them with vagrancy and…
Today/1888 A “tinhorn gambler,” according to several dictionaries, refers to a game of chance operator who pretends to have money, ability or influence. The phrase is said to come from people who set up chuck-a-luck games with few funds and a cheap metal (versus leather) chute, called a horn — individuals whom faro dealers disparaged as…
1948 A real or perceived protective relationship with illegal gambling operators got Nevada police superintendent, Lester C. Moody, fired. Governor Vail Pittman, who’d appointed Moody to the position two years before, terminated him in May 1948. The Nevada Tax Commission, charged with regulating gambling, supported Pittman’s action. The governor had lost confidence in Moody’s…
1970 When Connie Stevens, entertainer, departed after a stay at the Kings Castle hotel-casino in Incline Village, Nevada, she accidentally left $20,000 ($122,000 today) worth of jewelry in her suite. Linda Cooley, a housekeeping team member, discovered the stash and promptly turned it over to the proper authorities. Stevens, who’d been robbed of jewelry recently…
1936-Present If it weren’t for gambler Ernest J. Primm’s nerve and fortitude, California’s nearly 90 card clubs wouldn’t exist today. With a gambling license from the city of Gardena (in Los Angeles County), he opened a poker room there in 1936 — the Embassy Club. It was the first above-ground establishment of its kind since…