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…
1951-1952 Gambling boomed in Las Vegas, Nevada immediately following Senator Estes Kefauver and his committee’s nationwide investigation into organized crime. The 27 hearings the group conducted in 14 United States cities in 1950 and 1951 (Las Vegas was in November 1950) “turned a bright, hot light on illegal gambling in other parts of the country,”…
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…
1870s-1920s “I want to go short 1,000 bushels of December wheat, 1 cent on the bushel.” This $10 bet was typical back in the heyday of bucket shops in the United States, between 1870 and 1920. People wagered on the future prices of stocks, securities and commodities — grains, cotton, oil, etc. — without actually…
1941 Nevada casinos are known for their big-name entertainment, and it all started in the city of Elko. In spring of 1941, Newton Crumley, owner of the Commercial Hotel and its Monte Carlo Casino, engaged Ted Lewis, bandleader-singer-entertainer-popular radio star, to perform there for a week for $12,000 (about $196,000 today). Other stars…
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…
Today Chinese dice differ from traditional dice in two ways: • The spots for numbers 1 and 4 are painted red. • The number 1 spot is larger and more deeply etched than all others. ————— Know why? Photo from Pond5: “Chopsticks and Dice on White Background” by olinchuk
1961-1966 Early in 1961, Michael Catrone, 60, an apartment complex owner, presented to the Nevada Club in Las Vegas, Nevada a winning keno ticket for $25,000 ($198,000 today). Yet the casino’s general manager didn’t pay it because it was suspicious — the ink on the ticket was lighter than on other ones. An internal inquiry…
1954-1962 Each time her husband, Ernie Kovacs, lost big at poker, actress Edie Adams bought herself a chinchilla coat or antique harpsichord. When the bills for those purchases arrived, he’d say, “We can’t afford this!” She’d respond, “Simple, just stop gambling.” Photo from The New York Public Library Digital Collections, 1967-1986, Billy Rose Theatre Division:…
1946 Two brothers — Edward P. and George Jones — freely controlled Chicago, Illinois’ policy* racket for 25 years, beginning in the 1920s. As a result, the two raked in money, $10 to $30 million per year, in nickels and dimes, primarily from the Caucasians and African Americans living in slums, which turned the siblings…