The Faro Fadeaway

Crimes / Violence / Punishments: Cheating / Fleecing, Gambling, Games / Races: 21 / Blackjack, Games / Races: Poker, Games / Races: Slot Machines / Fruities, Horseshoe Club / Binion's Gambling Hall & Hotel (Las Vegas, NV), It Really Happened, The Ramada Hotel Casino (Reno, NV), United States, Virginia City--NevadaLeave a comment

1825-1958 The hottest game in the Old West between 1825 and 1915, faro is pretty much extinct in the United States today. If you’ve never heard of it — and you aren’t alone there — it’s a fast-action, one-deck card game in which innumerable players compete against a bank rather than one another. (Learn the…

Livingstone Taunts Mob With Cowshed

Belle Livingstone, Belle Livingstone, George Wingfield, It Really Happened, James "Jim/Cinch" C. McKay, Nathan "Nick" Abelman, Prohibition, Reno--Nevada, The Cowshed (Reno, NV), William "Bill/Curly" J. Graham3 Comments

1931 Belle Livingstone wasn’t the typical Nevada gambling club owner. She’d acted on the stage and screen in the 1890s. She’d mingled with royalty and wealth in Europe and the United States. During Prohibition, she’d operated a speakeasy on New York’s Park Avenue. During that stint, she’d been arrested three times and spent 30 days…