1941 The man who played roulette in the Palace Club nearly every day for six months was noticeable for his suave appearance. Henry Helmut, age 47, had a bit of gray hair and sported a tasteful, waxed moustache, Pince Nez glasses with ribbon and sharp, tailored attire. “He looked like a college professor out on…
1950 The $1.6 million Desert Inn resort had just opened in Las Vegas, and a gambling naif nearly put it out of business. A 22-year-old sailor, who didn’t know much about gambling, bet $1 on craps and had a run of 27 straight passes. During it, the people around him started winning, too. “There was…
1904, 1915, 1936 Against a backdrop of sagebrush and dust in Nevada’s early, remote mining towns, saloons drew men for drinking and gambling. That combination, along with contrarian/antagonistic personalities, sometimes led to disputes that turned violent. Here are three stories in which tempers, as fiery as the summers, got the better of men and ended…
2017 In Ontario, Canada, the appropriately named gambling resort — Fallsview Casino — overlooks Horseshoe Falls, one of the three gushing cascades that comprise Niagara Falls.
1916 The year brought indictments in Las Vegas against individuals for violating Nevada’s anti-gambling statute, which was unusual because law enforcement generally ignored or poorly enforced it. Operating a gambling game then constituted a felony. In 1916, most games of chance were illegal except for these that the legislature had allowed via passage of an…
1956 When auditors for Nevada reviewed its books, they discovered the El Rancho casino on the Las Vegas Strip had underpaid the requisite gambling taxes over nine quarters by $39,000 ($350,500 today). Despite the claims of owners , et. al. that they believed they’d paid the proper amount, tax commissioners assessed a 100% penalty, the…
1946-1947 On the third Tuesday of April 1946, after work at the Southern Pacific Shop in Sparks, Nevada, Sam Lemel took the bus to Reno and went to Harolds Club where he played craps. He began by betting two half-dollars, which he lost. He left the casino and returned a bit later, only to lose…
1929 Le Casino Municipal in Cannes, France broke its record in January for the highest amount of money (in chips) in play at a baccarat table — $1 million ($14.3 million today). “Though individual bets seldom ran over 200,000 francs or $8,000, almost every five minutes saw $50,000 change hands,” reported The New York Times…
1934 After Nevada legalized gambling in 1931, a faction opposed to the industry fought to have it eradicated. “A group of Nevada citizens felt there was a growing protest against the injury being done our state by gambling — not only because of the evil done in depriving needy citizens of their depressed earnings without…
1941 Ten years after Nevada legalized gambling and shortened the residency requirement for divorce from six months to six weeks, Montana took steps to compete. Bills to legalize gambling and to allow 30-day divorces were introduced to the state legislature. Neither made it through, leaving dude ranchers and many others upset about the potential economic…