1968 During the grand opening of the Silver Spur casino at 221 N. Virginia Street, Reno, Nevada on July 1, 1968, the ribbon was cut with a silver spur that Audie Murphy used in the movie, Billy the Kid. Resembling an early Western gambling hall, the club showcased a $25,000-limit keno game, five 21 tables,…
1951 Prior to the July grand opening of the new Greyhound Lines Inc. bus terminal at 224 S. Center Street in Reno, Pyramid Securities Inc. applied for a gambling license and permission to offer games of chance within the new Northern Nevada facility. The request specifically was for craps, 21 and roulette, one of each.…
1923 A new man in town was thought to be the famous Irish American boxer Edward “Gunboat” Smith. But when the City of Reno police arrested him as a suspect in a $310 ($4,500 today) theft from the Casino gambling house in Northern Nevada, they discovered he was an impostor. His real name was Jack…
1902-1927 Touted as “the finest clubhouse west of the Rocky Mountains,” the Casino at Tallac debuted at Lake Tahoe’s South Shore in California in July 1902 despite gambling having been illegal in the state since 1860 (San Francisco Chronicle, July 15, 1902). “Tallac, heretofore the staidest and most exclusive resort in the Sierra Nevadas, is…
1995-Today The casino name, Avi, translates into “money” or “loose change” in the language of the Mojave tribe, whose members own it. Uniquely located geographically, Avi Resort & Casino is on the Fort Mojave Reservation, which reaches into Arizona, Nevada and California, but is in Laughlin (NV). Borders with the other two states are within…
1943 In the mid-afternoon of Tuesday, February 2, 1943, smoke emanating from a third-story apartment in Lakeview, Illinois led to the discovery of a woman dead inside — her face, head and neck mutilated, her body burned. She was identified as 31-year old Estelle Evelyn Carey, one of the roommates residing in the unit at…
1946 Which famous hotel-casino debuted in Las Vegas, Nevada the day after Christmas in this year? Hint: Jimmy Durante was the grand opening star; while on stage he destroyed a $1,600 piano (a $20,000 value today).
1943-1949 Two acquaintances were having a drink at a Reno casino bar — Miles T. Ellis, 47, a tourist, and Anthony Swiderski, 52, a local chef in the Northern Nevada town. At an opportune moment, Swiderski spiked Ellis’ drink with croton oil,* which has a slight smell and unpleasant taste. This plant-derived substance, if ingested,…
1924 Senator Carey “Estes” Kefauver (D-Tenn.), the driving force behind rooting out illegal gambling and organized crime in the United States in the 1950s with his famous eponymous committee, decades earlier had taught math and coached football at the high school in a city where illegal gaming was allowed and rampant from the 1860s to…
1860s-1960s “The loose buckle in the Bible Belt” and “Las Vegas before Las Vegas had water” — these were Hot Springs, as described in the press (Hot Springs, 2013). This Central Arkansas city boasted illegal, yet wide-open, gambling for about a century, from the late 1860s until the late 1960s, making it the only United…