Nevada Gaming History

2019-01-13T17:01:00.000-07:00

This is the Cal-Vada Lodge, circa 1940. Just below the lodge on the right (not shown) and hard up against the edge of the lake is the Cal-Neva Lodge, first built by Larry McElvy and then rebuilt after a fire in 1937 by Bill Graham and Jim McKay.

The photos below from 1995 may help explain a few things about the small casinos at the juncture of Stateline Rd. and NV 28, at Crystal Bay, Nevada, and how they were used.

Clearlythere is a road on the left of the building below, and to the right and shown below is the reconstruction of another building that also was named the Cal-Vada Lodge. Yes, there was gaming!

In 1931, when gaming was legalized, the Cal-Vada Lodge opened as a casino. Ownership changed in 1935 after the owners of the Cal-Neva Lodge (Graham and McKay) went on trial for mail fraud in a race-wire scheme outlined in the book Mob City: Reno.

About that time a new casino opened across the street to the left of the Cal-Vada Lodge. It was imaginatively named the La-Vada Lodge. It is shown in 1995 below, going through yet another face-lift.

The new club had lodging, and business was brisk. The group of buildings was sold to Frank Mercer and Mac Barrett in 1942. Mercer also operated a club at South Shore named the Main Entrance.

In 1950, Joby Lewis purchased the larger building from Frank Mercer and reopened as the "New Cal-Neva Lodge."

Joby was offered a small space along the Tahoe Biltmore in 1954, and he moved into what was called Joby's Monte Carlo the following summer. He sold his old club to Bernie Einstoss and Frank Grannis who brought in Bandleader and owner of the Bal Tabarin restaurant in San Francisco as a partner along with Andrew Desimone and Tom Guerin.

The late 1950s sparked a grand ending for the building under the new name the Bal Tabarin. With a newly expanded kitchen, the club featured high-class meals, great entertainment that included headliners like Mel Torme, and music all night long during the summer months. There wasn't a hotter night spot at the lake than what the Bal Tabarin and the Cal-Neva were offering every week.

The casino had over 90 slot machines plus two craps tables, roulette and the occasional chuck-a-luck game. Amid the music from the band, the smoke, the shouting at the craps games and the clanging of the slot machines, nothing could have been better for players in the late ‘50s.

In 1959, Lincoln and Meta Fitzgerald, who owned the Nevada Club in Reno, purchased the Tahoe Biltmore, the Bal Tabarin, and Joby's Monte Carlo. They ran the clubs for just one year before closing the Bal Tabarin down. Then, they expanded their club and renamed it the Nevada Lodge. The Monte Carlo became a large restaurant.

The entire Cal-Vada lodge and Bal-Tabarin remained boarded up until the remodeling of the smaller lodge in 1995 and the demolition of the larger casino the following year. The remodeled property is still intact and the Crystal Bay Club Casino owns it. It's not as big time as Las Vegas, but it's beautiful.

Reno's Town House Casino

2019-01-07T14:32:00.000-07:00

Reno became the Divorce Capital of the World in the 1930s. Open-gaming was legalized in 1931 and the state lowered residency requirements to six-weeks for divorces. So, people arrived in droves, ready to "take the cure" as they called it, and hotels were available for those on the rich side. Those with more adventurous souls or more modest pocketbooks stayed at one the many dude ranches found in the countryside all over Washoe Valley.

Pictures from the '20sand '30s depict Reno visitors in cowboy garb, even if they just took the train in from New York City and had never been on a horse in their life. To fit the crowd and the countryside, Reno saloons and casinos sported a country theme well into the '60s.

One of the most popular saloons to open in downtown Reno was the Town House, first known as the Dude Ranch Town House. The property was built and operated by Charles Rennie. The bar didn't have to be as big as the coming Las Vegas casinos like the El Rancho to be successful, and the saloon sported just a long bar, restaurant, and six slot machines. After opening, the club had three games, a 21 table, craps, and roulette.

Although drinking was still illegal due to Prohibition, the Town House offered liquor, as most Reno establishments did. As chronicled in "Mob City: Reno Connection," Bill Graham and George Wingfield had the fix-in for any club that was sharing a piece of their action, and the Feds never busted the Town House.

Rennie tried to expand his gaming empire to Plumas Avenue, several miles from the downtown corridor in 1936. The move didn't sit well with the men in charge of Reno, and within a year Charles Rennie owned neither the Country Club nor the Town House.

After a public auction in 1937,the Town House was purchased and reopened in December by Fay Baker and Tom Brown. Postcards and even gaming chips from the era depict the Town House logo: A tall, bow-legged cowboy bellied up to the bar with well-shaped women on either side of him. The logo's caption was "The riding lesson."

The Town House struggled to stay in business with different owners for nearly 20 years. In 1955 it was destroyed by a suspicious fire.

J.C. Penney built a new store in its place on First Street that survived until 1990. Reno may no longer be a cowboy town, but it’s still more country than city.

Super Easy Aces Field Trial

2018-10-02T13:41:00.001-07:00

The hot new table game Super Easy Aces begins a field trial tomorrow at Primm Valley Resort in Primm, Nevada, along highway 15 from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.

If you haven't stopped at Primm, I understand. It used to be just a tiny bar and casino called Whiskey Pete's with a big two-story facade like Harvey's Wagon Wheel and George's Gateway had at South Shore in the 1940's.

When the club opened, it was considered to be Clark County. Later it was called part of Jean, Nevada. In 1996, the town was officially named Primm, Nevada. Why? Well, let's see.

The town started as a way-station along the long, lonely road from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Many a vehicle needed a fill of gas and water during the trip, and Pete McIntyre opened a tiny gas station to supplement his mining income.

With a 10-gallon hat and a pair of holstered pistols, Pete greeted drivers with a wary eye. If he liked you, he explained the Whiskey Pete's name. Yup, you could fill your car's tank with gas, and your Mason jar with moonshine, if you passed muster. But back to the Primm name.

Enter Ernie Primm

About the time Pete passed away in 1933, Ernie Primm was running card games in Gardena, California. In 1936 he opened the Monterey Club and kept his eye on Las Vegas, where newly-legalized gaming was taking hold in the small town.

He took some of his cash and purchased the old Whiskey Pete's gas station and sandwich shop for $15,000. The purchase came with 400 acres of dry desert land Ernie thought might be valuable as a casino center some day. But that someday was 20 years away.

Instead of opening something new in the sand outside Vegas, Ernie headed to Reno, where casino owners were doing quite well, thank you. He refurbished a large retail store directly across from Harold's Club and fought the Reno City Council for two years, demanding that he be allowed to open a casino on the "other side" of the street from the Big Boy's. Finally, in 1955, his wishes were granted.

Ernie's Primadonna Club was very popular, competing on an even footing with Harrah's, Nevada Club, and Harold's Club for players. The casino ran for nearly twenty years before it was sold to Del Webb and became the Sahara Reno.

Back at the little gas station on Highway 15 (what used to be Highway 91) from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, the variously named Whiskey Pete's/Bordertown gas station and diner got a face-lift. Well, a refurbishing and a facade. A great big one.

Opening in 1978, Whiskey Pete's had a majestic total of 12 motel rooms for weary travelers and a handful of slot machines plus a blackjack table. Ernie passed away in 1981, but his son, Gary, kept the small casino going and found financing to build the Primadonna casino in 1990.

The resort center added Buffalo Bill's casino in 1994. Today, Affinity Gaming owns the three-casino resort. Visitors are also attracted to the area by a popular golf course and the Las Vegas Outlet Mall.

Affinity Gaming runs a total of ten casinos in Nevada, Colorado, Missouri, and Iowa.

The New Super Easy Aces Field Trial

The Super Easy Aces Field Trial starts tomorrow at the Primm Valley Resort. Game inventor Paul Harry can be seen explaining the exciting game on a feed from the casino featured on KTNV Channel 13 Las Vegas.

In a nutshell, the game is a new table-style offering with a deck of 54 cards. However, the deck consists of just aces, twos, threes, and fours, and a couple jokers. That's it. Wagering is on a single card dealt to the player (bet on ace, two, three, or the joker) and a match-bet with the dealer.

It's fast, easy to play, and a lot of fun to catch some good cards or even a joker for a payoff of 25 to 1. The Dealer Match bet pays up to 100 to 1. So drop by the Primm Valley Resort and give it a try!

Legal US Sports Betting

2018-09-04T20:24:00.003-07:00

Betting on your favorite team wasn't legal in Nevada until the 1940s, but you could always find a local bookie who would lay a line for you.

At the Country Club, you could talk to Doc in the bar, any night after 9 pm and get a bet down. Nickle lines were popular, but a dime line (lay $1.10 to win $1.00) was standard. If you were betting a big favorite like the New York Yankees or the San Francisco Seals, you might have to bet more than $2.00 to win $1.00, but that was just to even out the wagers.

Once legalized in Nevada, most casinos offered some type of a book, although it was often one run by Bugsy Siegel and offered just horse racing.

In 1951, the Federal Government implemented a 10% fee on all wagers and Nevada sports books had to be creative to take wagers and make a profit. It was so crazy that in the 1960s there were no sports books in any Las Vegas casinos until Jackie Gaughan opened a book inside his Union Plaza in 1975 when the 10% fee was struck down.

After that, Lefty Rosenthal opened a fancy sports book in the Stardust, where he was running the skim at the casino (as outlined in Vegas and the Mob). The sports book was popular, but didn't make enough money to even skim a little, although Lefty allowed friends to make an occasional wager well-after the official start of a game. That, of course, was against the law and against the owner's wishes, but Lefty didn't care.

Today

Recently, the US Supreme Court made betting legal nationwide with a 6-3 decision, siding with New Jersey and striking down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act.

With the ruling comes a brave new world for illegal bookmakers, and, I suppose, a safer, more profitable one for legal punters. And who will the legal eagles be? Think William Hill and IGT first.

For the past decade, William Hill has handled more than half of the sports wagering in Nevada, the only US state that allowed legal wagering. Following the decision of the Supreme Court (Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association - May 2018), New Jersey legalized gambling on athletic matches based on a previous state ballot. And, William Hill entered agreements to handle sports wagering at Ocean Resort Casino and Monmouth Park Racetrack. More casinos will be added in the future.

As for IGT, the company processed more than $12 billion in wagers last year. Their US sports wagering deals (through their PlayShot system) may be single partnerships with casinos in Delaware, Mississippi, and West Virginia (and perhaps Maryland quite soon), or could be in partnership with William Hill US.

Up in Rhode Island, the lottery department chose IGT to provide the sports betting platform and William Hill to provide the actual sports betting operation and risk management. The partner's contract is for a five year period and has a mutual-consent option for two more five-year terms.

Several other smaller operators are already in operation in New Jersey. The strongest will survive.

Online Wagers

In New Jersey, DraftKings Sportsbook went live August 1. They were followed by playMGM, SugarHouse, FanDuel, and William Hill. Online wagering is likely to be legal. To make your bets, you have to physically visit one of the casinos and sign up.

West Virginia plans to allow online wagering with some restrictions. Time will tell.

Although 20 states tried to push-through sports wagering proposals, only a few were successful. Delaware already had casinos, horse racing, and was ready for sports books. It was not ready for online bets, so search elsewhere.

Unfortunately, your search in Mississippi won't yield online wagering only. As results are evaluated by states currently on the betting fence, some may be disappointed by overall results.

Sports books don't exactly make a casino profitable. They only compliment the bottom line with a small and shaky profit compared to slot machines or table games.

Sports wagering profits are made by splitting the majority of wagers along a point spread or movable money line so regardless of who actually wins a sporting event, the bookie holds a small profit (often as low as 2%).

And when will online poker rooms be legal in all states? Soon, I hope.

The King's Castle

2017-05-22T15:10:00.000-07:00

How's this for a great shot from the early '70s? This postcard is from Reno Tahoe Specialty, Inc.

Nate Jacobson built the King's Castle Casino at Incline Village (Lake Tahoe), Nevada after selling his part of Caesars Palace in 1969. A former insurance salesman, broker, and owner, Jacobson faced charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to the sale of Caesars Palace in 1969.

His club at the lake ran into issues soon after taking a Teamsters loan to build the property, and they continued as the small casino struggled to get a foothold in a resort community that especially in the early 1970s was quite seasonal. When the snow flew, so did most of the tourists. Sure, there were skiers at Incline, but historically at both north and south shores of Lake Tahoe, the skiers were there to ski, not gamble.

Jacobson moved to the Lake from Las Vegas in 1968 after selling his Baltimore Bullets NBA basketball team, turning his insurance agency over to his sons, and leaving his job as President and CDO of Desert Palace, Inc. (Caesars Palace).

What Jacobson built at Incline Village was complete with medieval castle motif including walls, turrets and an indoor dinner theater named Camelot. Outside, the grounds held a full-size Lady Godiva on a horse and four palace guards.

Who You Gonna Trust?

Unfortunately, real guards inside the casino were not as trustworthy as they might have been. One problem leading to the casino’s closure in 1972 was a general lack of honesty. Workers in several areas of the club were stealing from inside. Two security guards even had keys to the drop boxes from the blackjack tables. When the boxes went to the soft-count room in an elevator, the guards would help themselves to a few hundred dollars each night. They got caught because one of them accidentally took a “fill-slip” along with his nightly cut.

When the club closed, 500 workers lost their jobs. The chips from the club went into the hands of several managers, one of whom was supposed to dump them in the lake. He didn’t make it there with all the chips, which is nice for collectors.

The club reopened in 1974 and lasted less than a year under Judd McIntosh. Later, Jimmie Hume took charge of managing the club for a year or so until it was purchased by Hyatt Hotels in May of 1975.

Hyatt brought in Jack Hardy as general manager, and he oversaw the renovation and reopening of the property, and since that time, the club has been successfully run as the Hyatt Regency at Incline-Village.

Searchlight, Nevada and "The King of Casinos"

2017-02-04T21:39:00.001-07:00

1950's at the El Rey in Searchlight, Nevada

Don't feel bad if you've never heard of Searchlight, Nevada. It's the proverbial black spot on a map. It's an unincorporated town 13 miles square somehow holding 500 hearty souls. To be fair, ah, well, it's a dot, that's all.

Really, if you are accidently in Needles or Blyth, California, you might drift off towards US 95, but more likely, you already found Laughlin and did some gambling. That's cool, but if Las Vegas calls, you need to backtrack to US 95 and take a 100-mile trip where you'll pass nothing but sand and sage and other cars. This is unless you miss the stoplight in Searchlight. Bummer.

And, as you roll through town you'll see that the Searchlight Nugget just closed after 40 years. Double bummer! Of course, there used to be an even more famous place - Willie Martello's El Rey Club and Bordello, which had opened in 1946, but a fire ended that fun run in 1962.

Along the way, Willie tried his best to grow the club and make a dream in the desert come true, no matter the cost or the consequences. By that, I mean sure, there were prostitutes, and yes, he did get his gambling license revoked, but that happens to all small club owners, right? Maybe not.

At any rate, while Willie wasn't the man who actually started the club, he was the man who made it as the King of Casinos in the tiny town (unincorporated, yes) of Searchlight. To learn more about Willie, you need to read Andy Martello's book, The King of Casinos, which is available in paperback from Amazon and other places.

Believe me, this is a great read. Don't believe me? The book has 64 reviews at Amazon and 95% of them are 5-star. That's amazing. So's the story Andy tells.

Thanks for reading - Al W Moe

Reno's Northern Club

2017-01-01T20:59:00.001-07:00

Reno’s Northern Club was one of the first casinos in the state licensed for gaming in 1931. Located on the ground floor along Center Street in Reno, the casino was run by Felix Turillas Sr. and John Etchebarren in the Commercial Hotel. Women were rare players in the 4,000 square-foot club when it opened with two craps games, Hazard, Faro, 21, and poker tables. The three slot machines were an afterthought and rarely had more than a few coins run through them daily. Across the street, clubs like the Dog House (billed as “The Divorcee’s Haven) had stage shows that ran 24-hours a day featuring nearly-nude fan dancers and strippers.

Turillas was a colorful, cantankerous character who also ran the gaming at Lawton’s Springs where he was charged by pro-hi’s with violating the Volstead Act (Prohibition of alcohol sales) in the 1920’s, but his buddy Bill Graham got the charges dropped. Turillas also owned the Northern Hotel and liked to deal poker, often with George Wingfield in the game.

The Northern Club added a Big-Six Wheel and Keno to its gambling mix and ran successfully until it was sold to Jack Fugit, who redecorated and reopening as the Barn. The small club struggled as the casinos fronting on South Virginia Street like Harrah’s, Harold’s and the Nevada Club began to take business from those on Commercial Row and Center Streets.

In 1944, a man with some off-shore gaming and bar experience in San Diego named Wilbur Clark purchased the Barn. Although he had only a few thousand dollars of his own money to invest, he was backed by partners in the mid-west as well as the east coast, variously reported as Moe Dalitz and Frank Costello. He spent their money freely. The most striking attribute of the Gay-Nineties motif club were the wall fixtures, eight-foot tall nude ladies who appeared to be holding the ceiling in place.

The following year Wilbur Clark moved to the El Rancho Casino, the first casino on the old highway to Los Angeles that became known as the Las Vegas Strip. He fronted the casino for Frank Costello, and “skim” went to Meyer Lansky. Thomas Hull, who owned the El Rancho, took a piece of the Bonanza Club in Reno.

His ownership there was very short-lived, and he sold his interest to Lou Wertheimer, who came to town from Detroit, where he ran casinos for the Detroit Partnership. Wertheimer sold his ownership at the Bonanza when the Mapes Casino was ready to be opened in 1947.

The Bonanza stayed in business under several partnerships, but the gaming on Center Street continued to play second fiddle to South Virginia Street and the only person interested in the building was Bill Harrah, who purchased it in 1952. He opened as Harrah’s Bingo in 1953. Today, part of Harrah’s Reno is located at the corner of Second and Center Streets.

Thanks for Reading - Al W Moe

El Rancho - First on the Las Vegas Strip in 1941

2016-12-05T15:39:00.005-07:00

The El Rancho in Las Vegas was built by Thomas Hull as an addition to his chain of “El Rancho” hotels in Gallup, New Mexico, and Fresno and Sacramento, California. The 63-cabin resort was designed as a way-station, a break for families to enjoy on their trip through Nevada, not as a casino property.

Still, it opened on April 3, 1941, with a small casino. The property was inviting, with a white, split-rail fence surrounding the frontage of the 57-acre property and a large sign spanning the driveway entrance. Included at the El Rancho were a large pool, a neon-lit windmill atop the main entrance, and horseback riding stables. Each cabin had a personal parking area, a porch, and a patch of green lawn, carefully maintained by gardeners. Many cabins had kitchens so that guests could cook meals, or they could eat in the Chuck Wagon buffet in the center of the property.

The casino was smaller than those in the downtown casino area but included blackjack, roulette, and craps, plus seventy slot machines. Guests were encouraged to visit the Opera House, where comedians like Joe E. Brown and Milton Berle performed. Crowds were small but enthusiastic.

Hollywood Legends in Las Vegas

Clark Gable was regularly seen at the 91 Club up the street while establishing Nevada residency and awaiting his divorce in 1939. He then stayed at the El Rancho, reluctantly, in 1942 after his new wife, Hollywood star Carole Lombard, was killed in a plane crash shortly after takeoff from the Las Vegas Airport.

Although the property was successful, Hull sold his percentage (points) in the hotel in 1943, and two new owners were listed on the Clark County gaming license, Hilton-Brown. Then, in 1944, Wilbur Clark arrived from his training in Reno.

Fronting for the Mob, Clark changed the property’s name to the El Rancho Vegas. By that time, the Hotel Last Frontier had joined the El Rancho along the highway to Los Angeles on October 12th, 1942. It kept the name until it changed to the New Frontier in 1955.

The casino did very well and Clark’s partners in Cleveland (Moe Dalitz and company) that they would help bankroll a new club for him. That move, the building of the Desert Inn, allowed Sanford Adler to move up to the “owner’s position” at the El Rancho Vegas before his ill-fated year at the Flamingo, and his banishment from Las Vegas.

Next, Jake Katleman purchased controlling interest in the property (and leased out the casino operations to some folks from Back East). When Jake passed away in 1947, Beldon Katleman took over at the young age of 31. He obtained loans, bought out the other family interests, and refurbished the resort at the cost of nearly a million dollars. At the time, the expansion made the casino the largest in Las Vegas.

During the 1950’s, entertainers did big shows at the El Rancho, but the competition from new properties like the Sahara, Sands, Dunes, and Desert Inn took away a chunk of the weekend business. Katleman kept interest going in the property by switching to more provocative acts, like strippers Candy Barr and Lili St. Cyr. However, as the resort prospered, his casino malfunctioned under Mob control, and Chicago Outfit henchman Marshall Caifano.

In early June of 1960, Katleman had Caifano removed from the property after a heated argument about the benefits Caifano wanted, which included free lodging and the constant company of new showgirls. On June 17, Caifano was surreptitiously allowed to enter the backstage area of the showroom. Once there, he started a fire that spread to the kitchen. Soon the entire property was a blazing inferno with flames seen all the way to the downtown casinos. The property was destroyed and never rebuilt. It took a while, but Caifano was eventually the first person listed in Nevada’s Black book, barred permanently from ever entering a Nevada casino. He wasn’t happy.

Ten years later, Howard Hughes bought the property before slipping out of his Desert Inn penthouse early one morning and catching a jet to the Bahamas. The property was still vacant years later when Bill Bennett of Circus Circus purchased it. In 1982, the once-Mob controlled Thunderbird hotel changed its name to the El Rancho Casino, after running as the Silverbird from 1977 to 1981. That El Rancho property closed in 1992.

Harold's Club - A Reno Classic

2016-11-28T16:39:00.002-07:00

Early '50's Craps

Harold's Club in Reno was the Nation's best-known casinos in the 1940's and 1950's, but how did that happen? Well, the story is told in much greater detail in Nevada's Golden Age of Gambling, but here's the start!

Raymond "Pappy" Smith

Raymond I. Smith spent thirty years of his life running carnival games from a baseball throw to a hoop game, to a wheel of fortune, and his own fortunes rose and fell with each season. Summer was always strong, but fall stood more for a change in cash flow than the leaves that left their home in the trees. Winter was always cold, and there was no fun in Southern California or Florida, yet. There was just travel, boredom, and the hope for an early spring.

His sons came along almost unnoticed. Raymond, his first son, was born in 1907, and Harold came into this harsh world three years later. Traveling from town to town, and carnival to fair, the life was hard. Too hard, the son’s mother decided in 1918. She ran away with her lover to Ohio. You can run, but you can’t hide, even in Cleveland. And soon, “Pappy” arrived at the home of his soon to be ex-wife, dropped off the boys and continued on with his life.

His lifestyle was not conducive to rearing children, but he still provided support to the boys. When they came of age, he was willing to send for them, so they could work with him for the summer.

Early '50's Blackjack

Settling in one place, Pappy took on several booths at Chutes-at-the-Beach in San Francisco. Son Raymond was not happy with the beach and boardwalk. The passing crowds were not fun or exciting, they were cattle. He soon got a job at a local bank, with civilized people. Harold saw them differently. He was driven by a great need to please Pappy. Every task was taken up with vim and vigor. Each movement, no matter how simple, would be done to perfection. He was happy to work at the beach year-round. 1928 was a boom year for Pappy, and he looked forward to an even better 1929. Since Harold had shown such a flair for the “family” business, he decided to send his son to Riverview Park, in Chicago. Arriving in the spring of 1929, Harold set about getting some new carnival games going.

It was early on that Harold Smith was to learn what he conceded to be the underlying reason for his success in the casino business. He began giving away better and better prizes to his customers. He learned that you should get something for something. After the stock market crash and a failing national economy, that belief was even more important.

Early '50's Roulette

Back in San Francisco, Pappy sent Harold to Rio Nido, a nice country setting along the Russian River that provided a pleasant summer vacation spot for many families in Northern California. Harold went to work as a Bingo operator in the summer of 1931. His first prizes were “Beacon” blankets. They were both popular, and expensive. The players were many during that first summer.

Over the next four years, Pappy set up Fascination games in Florida, Whist in San Francisco, and roulette in Modesto. Changing political tides made his games legal one-day, and illegal the next. Finally, with the arrest of both “Pappy” and his son in Modesto, CA for gambling violations including the running of an illegal roulette game, he told his son it was time to try a place where gambling was legal every day of the year. That place was Reno, Nevada.

Off To Reno

Harold was interested until they arrived. No bright lights, and no big bettors, he considered it a tinhorn town. Harold studied the market and found a small Bingo parlor on South Virginia Street. He brought Pappy around and showed him the place. It wasn’t much, but Pappy decided to trust Harold’s hunch. They paid $500 to take over the lease and pay off the current owner’s debts. Then they closed up shop and began cleaning up their new store.

In a long, thin room (25 by 125 feet), Pappy and his son got the ball rolling, literally, at 7:00 p.m., February 23, 1936. No fanfare went into the first night; they just opened the front door. With just the penny roulette game, Pappy and son waited for their first customers. It was not the traditional roulette wheel we know today. Harold’s Club opened with a “flasher” wheel, and it was the first in Nevada. Hung from the ceiling, the eight-foot wheel spun before a large mirror, which gave each of the possible 43 players a chance to see the outcome. One game, no waiting, and the whole family got in on the act with everybody working. Soon Harold’s brother Raymond joined them, along with (believe it or not) their mother, and her new husband. By the year’s end, the books showed almost a break-even business. Profits would come slowly. The family never used an apostrophe after the “d” in Harold’s Club.

There's much more in the book Nevada's Golden Age of Gambling, softbound 8x11 or Kindle, with more than 70 vintage photos!

Thanks for reading - Al W Moe

Bill Harrah at Lake Tahoe

2016-11-20T15:38:00.003-07:00

Harrah's Lake Tahoe - Opened in 1955

Harrah's Tahoe - Opened in 1957

Bill Harrah was already a successful casino operator in Reno when he expanded to Lake Tahoe. The expansion is a little confusing, because, over the years, the Harrah's name graced both sides of Highway 50 at Stateline.

Hopping from spot to spot was a pattern Harrah had used in Reno, where he first set up shop at 124 N. Center Street, opening his first Nevada business on October 29, 1937, at the Owl Club. It wasn't successful, but that didn't stop him from opening another club the following summer. Over the next six years, Harrah had a half-dozen clubs, finally settling on Harrah's Reno Club in 1945.

At Lake Tahoe, Harrah first purchased George Cannon's Gateway Club, which was housed in an old Quonset Hut. It was located on the lakeside of the highway. It was upgraded to Harrah's high standards and reopened for the 1955 summer crowd. The club included the original South Shore Room plus keno, roulette, craps and 21 and a pari-mutual wheel (Big 8) and of course, plenty of slot machines.

Players had a choice of two bars, a snack bar, a 24-hour restaurant and a premium booth, where slot players could redeem their premium points for gifts. Business was very good, and just two years later, Harrah purchased Sahati's Stateline Country Club across the highway, on the mountain side, which dated back to the 1930's. It opened as Harrah's Tahoe in 1957.

A new and vastly expanded South Shore Room theatre-restaurant opened in late 1959. The new club had everything the club across the street had, plus a bingo room and a banquet hall called the Edgewood Room. An underground walkway was added in the 1960's, so players and employees could get across the highway without fighting the crowds of summer, or the snow and bitter cold of winter.

Harrah's Club on the lake side was eventually sold to Harvey Gross, builder of Harvey's casino. Forty years later in a strange twist, Harrah's purchased Harvey's club and now the parent company owns both, once again.

A much more detailed history of Harrah's clubs in Reno and Lake Tahoe is found in the book, Nevada's Golden Age of Gambling. Just $3.99 for 180 pages of stories and photos from the good old days!

Reno in July - so sad

2015-07-15T10:34:00.001-07:00

Well, this is just a little scary for Reno - on July 7th at 1 pm. If you don't know the scene, this is Virginia Street with the Eldorado on the right (Circus Circus behind and Silver Legacy forward). Many moons ago I spent my first night in Reno at the Thunderbird Motel, and I was happy to get a room.

Why was I happy? Because the town was full of gamblers. No, it wasn't Hot August Nights, or a Bowling tournament week, or any other event - it was just a weekend in Reno during the summer, long before California and dozens of other states offered casinos and poker games.Things have changed.

I will admit that there were some rainstorms around the Forth of July this year and that may have had an impact, but the empty street is so sad to me. I learned to play Texas Hold'em in Reno, starting at Mr. C's casino attached to the Sands on a 25-cent to $1 table. At the time there were lots of places to play and more than 100 tables in town. Today, just a few clubs still have live poker.

Your best bets are the games at Grand Sierra (formerly the MGM/Bally's/Hilton), the Peppermill and the Atlantis away from downtown. Right downtown there are games at the Club Cal-Neva and the Eldorado. This particular day the games at the Eldorado included what they said was the last 7-card stud game in town and a couple Hold'em games. They were $3-6 limit and $1-2 blind no-limit and that was that.

On the other hand, there are still plenty of good blackjack games in town, whether you want to play $3 or $100 a hand (many clubs still hold the upper limit at $500, but several offer $5 to $1,000 games). And, for those of you who want a game to yourself, there were plenty of empty tables all across the downtown corridor.

As for myself, the best games I saw were at Circus Circus, mostly because I won, and because my girls were having a great time upstairs in the Big Top arcade. Eventually they had a plastic bag filled with stuffed animals and candy, and the gaming paid more than the arcade games cost. Yup, you can still make money in Reno!

Thanks for reading - Al W Moe

Meyer Lansky's Mob Influence

2015-06-17T10:14:00.000-07:00

Meyer Lansky was influential enough to draw hundreds of inquiries from law-enforcement agencies during his lifetime, from the FBI, CIA, Highway Patrol offices in dozen's of states, local police, detective agencies, you name it, somebody wanted to know more about him. Strange, because as dirty and sticky as his hands were for the Mob, no charges seemed to stick to him.

Lansky was born born Meier Suchowlanski July 4, 1902 (died Jan 15, 1983) in Grodno, the Russian Empire. His father immigrated in 1909 to Manhattan and the family joined him two years later. By the time he was 13, Meyer was a tough-nosed hood who rolled drunks, manhandled local push-cart owners and hung with a group of like-mined young men who would eventually form a part of Lucky Luciano's main strong-arm groups and bootlegging gangs.

Although gang members like Bugsy Siegel seemed to love fights (and Siegel took real pride in his murders), Lansky was more cautious. When Joe Masseria needed to be hit, Lansky handled the details, Siegel, Vito Genovese, Albert Anastasia and Joe Adonis handled the guns. Lucky Luciano held control of the New York Mob for more than two decades, and the men who handled his dirty work at the Villa Tammaro restaurant in Coney Island (on tax day, April 15, 1931) all had long careers in organized crime.

Siegel and Adonis were assassinated, Lansky and Adonis were deported to Italy. Lansky, always in the background when crimes were committed, lived a quiet life in Florida until he died January 15, 1983. Although he handled hundreds of millions in illegal funds from Mob crimes, he wasn't lavish in his lifestyle.

After the end of Prohibition in the early 1930's, Lansky setup gambling joints in Florida and Louisiana. He had at least a passing interest in Kentucky and Ohio clubs, but the New Orleans business was special to him, with slot machines sales and income topping the bill. After Lucky Luciano was deported in 1936, Lansky took advantage of the Swiss Banking Act of 1934 and setup a series of shell organizations to help launder both Mob money and his own.with a final holding spot of numbered Swiss bank accounts.

His legitimate business operations had a tendency to lose money, but his casinos were always profitable. As more pressure came from local police and sheriff associations, Lansky paid handsomely to keep his name clean and outside of legal hassles. And, Lansky approved of a move into Nevada casinos in both Reno and Las Vegas. Mob money went straight into clubs like the El Cortez and the Las Vegas Club, with Bugsy Siegel and Dave Berman putting up a chunk of cash.

When the building of Billy Wilkerson's hotel on the Las Vegas Strip stalled, Lansky was instrumental in convincing his bosses that a more public organization and ownership of the soon to be Flamingo was a good idea. Unfortunately, Siegel was a better hitman than a businessman. The construction was a financial disaster, the casino opened and lost money, and only the death of Siegel would keep the Mob happy.

Lansky didn't give the order for Siegel's hit, but he had to give his OK. A meeting in Havana with Lansky, Luciano and a dozen other family heads sealed Bugsy's fate. He lasted until June 20, 1947. After that, the team of Gus Greenbaum and Dave Berman handled things at the Flamingo with Moe Sedway managing the casino. Lansky got his weekly cut of the skim via bag man (including Siegel's ex-girlfriend, Virginia Hill) and funneled the cash through a complicated series of shady but legal enterprises to turn the untaxed cash into clean money. He sent his own share to Switzerland, again, sometimes with the help of Virginia Hill.

With the burgeoning success of Las Vegas, Lansky set his own brother up as a manager at the Thunderbird casino in town and later, when Cuba accepted Meyer as an adviser and then casino owner, he was a part of the Nacional Casino in Havana. Enormous profits were skimmed at the Thunderbird, and the Cuban casinos were a huge source of income.

Lansky and Cuba

It was Lansky who arranged a $250,000 bribe in 1952 for President Carlos Prio Socarras to allow Batista to return to power. Once the military coup of March 1952 took place, Batista allowed gambling to be a major part of the Havana experience. Over the next six years, Batista took a nightly share of the profits from all casinos slot machines, often ignoring the cut of the craps and blackjack tables. This allowed the Mob to help finance the building of several more casinos (although the Cuban government was footing a large share of the cost also).

While the Mob profited, the citizens of Havana as a whole didn't see much of a change in their living standards. Wealthy tourists flew to the island, spent lavishly in the hotels and casinos, and money flew away to the states (and Switzerland). Casinos like the Capri, Commodoro, Deauvill and Sevilla-Biltmore were split between several Mob families.

The Nacional, Montmartre Club and the new Habana Riviera were very successful for Lansky and the New York group, with the Riviera making more than $3 million in its first year of operation. Unfortunately for the Mob, their greed (and Batista's), were too much for Fidel Castro to stomach. The Cuban revolution of 1959 put an end to the gambling as rebels stormed the hotels, trashed the casinos, broke into the slot machines and even parking meters outside, and the tropical dream came to an end for Lansky. By that time, even his illegal clubs in Miami were under a cloud and soon to be closed.

Back to Vegas

Although the Mob's losses in Cuba (and Lansky's, estimated at nearly $10 million) were substantial, Las Vegas was still a great stream of skimmed cash. When the US Government indicted several casino executives of illegal cash transactions, Lansky was never touched, although he drained millions from clubs like the Thunderbird, Flamingo, Tropicana, Sands and even Caesars Palace.

He was indicted for income tax fraud and fled to Israel (if this sounds familiar, yes, the Hyman Roth character in Mario Puzo's The Godfather was patterned after Lansky) but returned to the US and stood trial in a botched case that he easily beat. He lived another ten years, lamenting his losses, dabbling in real estate, and at one point, transferring $15 million to his brother Jake's bank account when he was having more trouble with the IRS - this according to his daughter Sandra.

How close was the Hyman Roth character to Meyer Lansky? Roth's statement to Michael Corleone of "Michael, we're bigger than US Steel," was a direct quote from Lansky to his wife in their Miami home that was picked-up on tape by the FBI. Lansky passed away January 15, 1983 a free man.

Thanks for reading - Al W Moe

Reno's Club Harlem

2014-01-06T00:49:00.000-07:00

Club Harlem was one of the original integrated casinos in Nevada. Located at 221 East Douglas Alley, the bar first opened in 1946 under the watchful eye of its owner, William Bailey. Although cited for illegal gaming, the small property was later licensed in 1948 for slots and 21.

Bailey moved to Reno in 1934 from South Dakota (born 1903) and found numerous places to work before joining the army in 1940. When he returned to Reno in 1944 he invested in the Peavine Club at 219 Peavine Street, along with several other small bars.

The Peavine was originally opened by Harry Wright, and offered drinks, slots, craps, 21, and a rough crowd. The games may or may not have been on-the-square, and in December of 1944, craps dealer Walter Ector shot Joe Jones when he was accused of using loaded dice. The following year, Wright himself was shot by John Berton during a brawl. The 67-year old owner decided to sell his share of the club to Bailey, who ran the property for two more years before the building was condemned.

After opening the Club Harlem, Bailey was also shot while dealing dice. For a while, the casino was placed off-limits to Reno Air Base personnel and the 21 games had to be dealt from a wooden shoe due to questions about cheating. When that wasn't enough, a pit boss from the club was arrested at the New China Club next door - for cheating. My oh my.

In the meantime, Bailey worked continuously as a civil rights advocate and president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. Long before the much-better known Moulin Rouge opened in 1950's Las Vegas, Club Harlem was a leader in Nevada casino integration. When local entertainers finished their gigs at other casinos they weren't welcome to enjoy the casinos themselves. Instead, they often walked down the street to Club Harlem.

When Sammy Davis, Jr. was working with the Will Maston Trio at the Mapes, he could be found afterwards at the Club Harlem. B.B. King performed regularly at the Club Harlem, as did other entertainers like Louis Armstrong. Another favorite at the club was Pearl Bailey, a cousin of the owner!

Bailey sold his interest in the club to Norval Embry, who ran the club from 1958 until 1968 when it became the Soul Club. It operated as a bar and lounge for another ten years before being torn down to make way for Harrah's parking garage on Center Street in 1977.

For you chip collectors, one of the $5 chips shown above sat in a tiny alcove by the Virginia Street entrance of the Senator Hotel for a dozen years before a thief reached over a small glass partition and brought it to a Reno coin shop, hoping to get $5 for it. By that time it was selling in the $150 range and the seller did get more than they were expecting.

Many more stories about Reno, Las Vegas, and Lake Tahoe are found in Nevada's Golden Age of Gambling!

Thanks for reading - Al W Moe

Mob City - Reno Connection

2013-11-14T11:27:00.000-07:00

When Lucky Luciano organized the first Commission of the American Mafia, the cities with representation were all large, heavily invested in the riches from Prohibition, and had a ready delivery system for the booze that came in, usually along waterways and docks controlled by gangs.

Detroit, Buffalo, and Cleveland (although each currently seeing a decline in jobs and population) were heavily populated and had numbers rackets, union infiltration, loan sharking operations, and cargo hijacking on the docks that provided additional income to the families. Smaller cities were less profitable to manage, although not necessarily any less tough or less corrupt.

The Reno connection was more important for individual gang members in the 1920's and 1930's and it wasn't until later that the Chicago Outfit, the Detroit Partnership, and the New York Mob enjoyed a piece of the gambling in Reno. In the 1920's, Reno had its own Mob, a handful of men who controlled the gaming, speakeasies, prostitution (which was legal), loan sharking, and may have had a hand in opium and heroin distribution.

George Wingfield was the original architect of Reno's banking services and owned a piece of a dozen casinos in town, even before Nevada legalized open-gaming. And it was George and Bill Graham who made sure the gaming bill passed in 1931 by showering their legislators with campaign contributions. The new book, Mob City: Reno Connection reveals the power the small town Mob had over Reno and how the city grew into the "Biggest Little City in the World."

Mob City is a rewritten and updated version of The Roots of Reno, but includes a shorter verse on Goldfield and Tonopah before taking the reader to Reno in the '20's, filled with road gangs like Alvin Karpis, Ma Barker and her Boys, and "Baby Face" Nelson, and continues on to the fall of the Wingfield banks, the control of early casinos, and the eventual fall to Chicago, Detroit and New York.

If you enjoyed Vegas and the Mob, this new book will fill you in on what was happening before Vegas was the Gaming Capital of the World.

Thanks for reading - Al W Moe

Totally Nevada since the 1970's

2013-09-02T11:05:00.002-07:00

I've been Totally Nevada since I was a kid in the 1970's. there were so many things to do (skiing, horseback riding, swimming at Lake Mead and Lake Tahoe, sneaking into the Sahara pool on the Strip, and wandering the casinos looking for loose quarters in the coin trays of slot machines, to name a few) I was always busy.

I played Keno with my dad overlooking downtown Reno from the Horseshoe restaurant, did the same from the coffee shop at Barney's at Lake Tahoe, and waited until he had put a few nickles in the slot machines at the Commercial hotel casino in Elko before wandering out of that coffee shop to pull the handles when I was just 10 or 11 years old.

I don't blame my dad for getting me started with gambling, I thank him. And after all, I was obviously getting fed, just like the slots were. And, he did teach me to play poker, but it was my Grandma Marge who taught me blackjack. Her dad was a riverboat gambler who failed to return to the family farm from a trip to New Orleans when she was my age.

On the other side of the family, my great-great-uncle managed to lose the family's fortune in Monte Carlo, causing the Baron and his daughters to move to the US. That's pedigree, not despair. Live and learn.

When I'm not writing about Nevada and casinos, I'm in the casino, and the only thing I see wrong with that is the smoke! Got a question? I'm smarter than I look.

Thanks for reading - Al W Moe

Vegas and the Mob Book Trailer

2013-08-05T11:10:00.001-07:00

Thanks for watching - Al W Moe

Vegas Used to Be Fancy?

2013-07-23T11:34:00.001-07:00

Wow, people used to actually get dressed up to visit the casinos in Las Vegas! This scene from the mid '50's may have been staged, but there were a lot more people going to a nice dinner and show back then.

Of course the dinner show to see Rose Marie, or Jimmy Durrante, or Joe Brown, was an under-$10 affair. If you slipped the maître d' a couple bucks you got a nice seat. $5 put you up front where the singer or comic might just talk directly to you!

When the Rat Pack was making headlines in the '50's and early '60's, you could count on seeing Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin for a reasonable price, and they often hung around with other stars after the show to have a cigarette and a couple shots. of course that's when it was Vegas and the Mob!

When the Moulin Rouge casino opened in 1955 with stars like Count Basie, Pearl Bailey, Harry Belafonte and Louis Armstrong performing, their small showroom filled-up for the end of the second show with other stars like Marlene Dietrick, George Burns, Judy Garland, and Jack Benny, who were playing at other clubs in town. Nobody wanted to miss out on the Class A entertainment and the casino management went so far as to add a third show at 2:30 am, because as Chickie Berman used to say, "Nobody important gets up before noon anyway."

Life Magazine put the new club on its cover and touted the Moulin Rouge as the first racially integrated casino in Las Vegas, but the casino's success was also its undoing. Profits were being siphoned from the count room, bills went unpaid, and casinos on the Strip like the Sands pushed their weekly entertainment budget to astronomical levels, paying some stars more than $100,000 a week.

The Sands also slowly began allowing African American entertainers to enter using the front door of the property, and to even stay in some of the hotel bungalows. The change was quick and dramatic, and the Moulin Rouge closed just five months after it opened, but its impact was significant and within a few years all of the casinos in Las Vegas were fully integrated.

Today, you don't have to put on a coat and tie to enjoy the top stars playing at the Mirage, MGM, or the Luxor, but you can expect to pay $100 to see a big-name on the stage. That price doesn't get you dinner anymore, but there are a lot more choices in town than there were 50 years ago. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading - Al W Moe

Vegas and the Mob

2013-04-07T00:33:00.001-07:00

The Mob didn't start the gambling in Nevada, and especially not in Las Vegas. In fact, they were relative latecomers, since Nevada had gambling for years before it was officially legalized in 1931. Because Nevada was such a large state with such a small population, there wasn't much reason to spend any capital to setup shop there, not when Chicago was making a killing (sometimes literally) with their own casinos in Illinois, and Lucky Luciano's Family was doing just as well with joints in The Big Apple, Ohio, Kentucky, Florida, and Arkansas.

However, once Las Vegas started to grow, both air travel and auto travel became more common and less expensive, and a new thing called air-conditioning became commonplace in the desert, Vegas started looking good.

In fact, although Bugsy Siegel never warmed up (sorry, no pun intended) to the idea of living in Vegas, he spent more and more time in the town because it was legal. Times were getting tougher in Los Angeles, and while he much preferred Beverly Hills to downtown Vegas, nobody was trying to whack him. Of course all good things come to an end, right?

If you ever wondered how the Mob (starting mostly with Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and Bugsy Siegel) moved into Vegas, took over casinos, and then managed to skim millions of dollars while the FBI stood by watching, and listening, well the new book, Vegas and the Mob, answers that question!

Read about the new casinos the Mob built, who fronted for the Mob, and what happened when the Mob got crossed. Through forty years of frenzy, the Mob sucked their casinos dry of the profits that should have gone back into rebuilding, so people like Howard Hughes and corporate investors of the 1970's were able to find bargains in the desert, even if at the time of purchase they seemed like bad investments.

Vegas may be clean and free of the Mob today, but it wouldn't be what it is, without the Mob!

Thanks for reading - Al W Moe

"Bugsy" Siegel Still an Icon

2013-02-03T14:14:00.000-07:00

"Bugsy" Siegel is still an enduring icon of Hollywood, the Mob, and Las Vegas. Quite a legacy, really. Growing up in the Williamsburg district of Brooklyn (Feb. 28, 1906), no one expected the tough, skinny kid to even live long enough to have an impact on the world.

Siegel was already street-wise by the age of nine, rolling drunks and stealing from merchants, and he and Moe Sedway set up their own protection racket in the neighborhood, but his life took a real turn when he and new pal Meyer Lansky got involved in a fight with a dozen other kids over who would run a craps game on a stretch of sidewalk outside a sweet shop. A gun was drawn, but knocked to the ground, and it was Ben and Meyer who found themselves fighting over it. Meyer was stronger, and smarter, and as the boys ran from the sound of police whistles, Ben cowed to Meyers age and influence.

When The Volstead Act was enacted making bootlegging the greatest gift a government could ever do for criminals, Ben was 14. Old enough to drive, and he and Meyer had their own gang of all-Jewish hoodlums later dubbed the Bugs and Meyer Mob. They were tough, but there were already stronger gangs handling booze, and soon the partners were working for Arnold Rothstein's group, with Frank Costello, Charlie "Lucky" Luciano, and soon Albert Anastasia.

Benjamin Siegel got a taste of the good life when the money from bootlegging started rolling in, and he wasn't about to give it up. Ben's solution to business problems certainly wasn't negotiation, it was death, and he had no issues with helping out other gangs, for a price, as a very successful hitman.

While Siegel was charismatic and tough, Lansky was shrewd and grew more polished, and trusted by rival groups. During the late 1920's, the gangs of New York were considered Murder, Incorporated, as Siegel started joining in on even more Mob hits. At the direction of Lansky (for Frank Costello - future boss of the Genovese family), Siegel joined Joey Adonis, Albert Anastasia, and Vito Genovese to gundown mob boss Joe Masseria on tax day, April 15, 1931.

On his own, "Bugsy"pushed and bullied his way into any business he wanted, and took offense to any slight from a rival. When bootlegger Waxy Gordon wouldn't share some gaming locations in New York, "Bugsy" and Meyer paid-off an IRS agent to look at his income and Gordon was indicted for tax evasion. Cranky, Gordon sent a trio of brothers to kill Meyer and Siegel, but the story got out before they were successful, and two of the Frabrazzo brothers were killed.

That wasn't enough for "Bugsy," and in September of 1932, Ben checked himself into a hospital with stomach cramps. That evening, he slipped out of the hospital, picked-up two trigger men, and they went to a small, poorly lit home where they posed as detectives to entice Tony Fabrazzo to come out onto the stoop. When he did, "Bugsy" came out from the darkness and rained the remaining brother with lead.

Afterwards, Siegel felt better, returned to the hospital, and had a sound nights sleep. His alibi was scrutinized closely, but it held up. However, by this time, while working for local Mobs as well as the Chicago outfit led by Al Capone, "Bugsy" had truly earned his nickname and twisted the internal workings of every major crime family in the country. His future looked best far away, and he moved to California, leaving his wife, Esta, in Scarsdale.

Officially, his move was to cement a relationship with Jack Dragna, crime boss of California, but "Bugsy" wasn't happy with just that. While on the West Coast helped establish a drug route from Mexico to the US, infiltrated and extorted Hollywood unions, took-over the Trans-Union race wire through Chicago, and set up plenty of gaming houses in Los Angeles.

The money was good on the coast, and he made plenty with the Santa Anita Horse race track and his involvement with the Agua Caliente casino in Mexico, but he also took a huge chunk of money from the Trans-Union, about $25,000 a week. He considered every race book in Nevada to be his own income, since they had to pay a weekly fee to get results and stay in business. While he was a great earner for the Mob, he was a loose cannon.

He had offices in the boiler room of the Las Vegas Club, and also owned the El Cortez in downtown Vegas in the early 1940's, but he did think a larger club out on the Los Angeles highway would be very successful. He and Moe Sedway had purchased some sandy desert, and eventually made a deal with Hollywood restauranteur Billy Wilkerson for a nice hotel.

Once Wilkerson got the money coming in and the groundbreaking started, so did Siegel. He got Wilkerson to agree to his help in acquiring materials, which were hard to come-by in the postwar market of 1945, and soon US Senator Pat McCarran arranged the priority lists to allow the newly named Flamingo to get whatever it needed.

When cash ran short, Siegel talked more businessmen into investing, and of course the Mob had a stake in the property. Before it was halfway finished, Wilkerson was a bystander, Ben's girlfriend Virginia Hill was in charge of decorating, and the construction was hemorrhaging money. By opening time the $1.5 million dollar property had cost nearly $5 million, and the Mob was holding the bag for $3 million of it.

"Bugsy" was determined to open for New Year's Eve 1946, but the hotel rooms weren't done. The casino and restaurant opened on December 26th, but the mobster's luck was bad, as a winter storm kept the Constellation he had chartered to fly his Hollywood guests to Vegas were grounded on the tarmac in Los Angeles.

Old friend and Hollywood star George Raft made it to the Flamingo, losing $65,000 for the week, but the club had a rocky start and lost $300,000 as players got lucky, and regardless of the mobster's reputation, the old hands in Vegas weren't impressed: dealers and pit bosses stole easy pickings and put the casino in bad shape.

The club was shut down while construction was finished and a new opening took place on March 1st, when the showroom featured Jimmy Durante, the Xavier Cugat Band, and "Baby" Rosemarie. Rosemarie (of later Dick Van Dyke Show fame) recalled waiting for her first number when a handsome but tough-looking gentleman walked up to her, gave her a stack of $100 bills, and told her to go learn to play craps. She did, losing half the cash, and later was scared to death when she had to return what was left to him. Apparently he just laughed, refusing the money, but he had little to laugh about.

Although the property started to earn a little money, it was too late. He had too many enemies by this time, and even Meyer Lansky's pleading couldn't help him. He was gunned down in Virginia Hills home in Beverly Hills while calmly reading the paper. The best guess is that Moe Sedway arranged the hit, using Frankie Carbo as the driver and an unknown sharpshooter at the window of the once-named living room. The hit left "Bugsy" less handsome, but more famous than ever.

Simultaneously, the Flamingo was taken-over by Gus Greenbaum, Davie Berman, and Morris Rosen. Sanford Adler of the El Rancho casino up the street was chosen to front for the club, but manager Rosen had to knock the man down a few times before he packed-up and headed to Reno where he still had some influence.

With Siegel's death, money skimmed from the count room finally started making it's way to Meyer Lansky so he could share it with the Mob families of New York, Chicago, Kansas City, and even Miami. While Siegel's cash had nearly dried up, Lansky was reported to have saved nearly $300 million from his decades of involvement with the Mob and casinos from New York to the newly legal clubs of Nevada. Who ended up with lion's share of that cash after Lansky died in 1983 has never been established, but casino gambling is still attributed to Las Vegas more than any other place!

Thanks for reading - Al W Moe

Nevada Casino Poker Going Online

2012-12-07T10:30:00.004-07:00

The Nevada legislature passed the first Internet gambling bill in the US on Monday June 3, 2001, but it took until 2012 to grant approval to South Point Poker LLC as Nevada's first interactive gaming operator for intra-state gaming. The state's operators will have a tough time competing with established company's like William Hill, which already has millions of subscribers and offers a 200% deposit bonus for new players.

Las Vegas's South Point casino owner Michael Gaughan launched a free online poker site several months ago, setting the stage for live-money play. Global Cash Access holding was approved as an interactive gaming service provider and will partner with online wallet Live Gamer to facilitate the purchase of chips for play at the South Point poker site.

Although Nevada is 10-years behind in the adoption of real-money online poker, the mad scramble for licenses proves there is great demand anticipated for US player participation. Players hope new US based operators will offer large signup bonuses like UK operators.

William Hill Online Casino

A number of online poker rooms have been successfully providing safe, fun platforms for players worldwide for nearly a decade. A few of the major players, like William Hill, were founded before legendary Nevada casino operator Bill Harrah, who opened his first casino in Reno in 1937. William Hill was founded in 1934.

Today, William Hill PLC is listed on the London Stock Exchange (WMH) and is one of the largest bookmakers in the United Kingdom. Headquartered in the suburb of Wood Green in London, the company employees more than 17,000 people worldwide with offices in the UK, Republic of Ireland and Gibraltar. A well-known name, William Hill has 2300 licensed betting offices, the largest UK operator, and handles more than a million betting slips each day.

Thanks for reading - Al W Moe

George's Gateway Club at Lake Tahoe

2012-11-07T16:54:00.000-07:00

This has always been one of my favorite photos of George's Gateway Club because it sets the time in casino history so well. The cars show their age, and the simple fact that you could park right next to the building is significant to me. The early '50's presented a simpler way of life - and gaming too. Inside the club there was one bar, one restaurant, one craps game, one roulette table, five 21 tables, and less than 100 slot machines.

You can probably also see that the building itself is actually a converted Quonset hut. Strangely enough, George Sam Canon, who owned a bar and dance hall in Colfax, California called ...(drum roll please) the Quonset Club, decided during the winter of 1948 to dismantle the hut piece by piece, pack it up, and haul it to South Shore Lake Tahoe on a couple flat bed trucks.

He and his partners rebuilt the club with those huge signs proclaiming the casino to be George's, but he actually only held a 50% interest. Nonetheless, George was certainly the boss. By 1950 the club had 60 employees, including several family members like George's wife Anna and their daughter, Barbara Anne, who according to friend Steve Passalacqua, actually stripped the bark off the wooden log beams used in the rustic dining room with a draw knife. Although under 21, she also made change for slot players, paid jackpots, worked in the cage, and became a dealer when she did turn 21.

The Gateway was a summer business, but George Canon tried hard to make Lake Tahoe a year-round resort. When he sold the Gateway to Bill Harrah in 1955, he and his partners started the Heavenly Valley ski resort. After selling his share of the business in 1960, George operated George and Tex's Gateway club in Jackpot, Nevada until it burned. Afterward, it was rebuilt as Diamond Jim's.

Back at the lake, Bill Harrah also rebuilt, first turning the Gateway into Harrah's Lake Club before switching sides of the highway with Harvey Gross (Harvey's Casino) and opening Harrah's Lake Tahoe - eventually building the high rise hotel in 1973. Lake Tahoe had some of the greatest casinos in Nevada - and they are still going strong!

Thanks for reading - Al W Moe

Charlie Mapes

2012-10-04T13:51:00.002-07:00

Sometimes Charlie Mapes doesn't get the respect he deserved for his work in the Reno gaming community. I mean really, here he is getting punched-out by boxing champion Jack Sharkey! The event was the 85th Birthday party of Ancil Hoffman, who was well-known in Reno as the manager of Heavyweight Champ Max Baer.

The Boxing Champion's party was the brainchild of Bill Pettite, a boxing fan and nephew of Nick Abelman, one of Northern Nevada's gaming pioneers featured in the book, Mob City: Reno. Mapes decided to hold the event and foot the bill for 350 guests at his casino in 1970.

It turned out to be one of the largest gatherings of boxing legends ever, and included James J. Braddock, Jersey Joe Walcott, Willie Pastorano, Jackie Fields, Fred Apostoli, Jimmy McLarnin, and "Two Ton" Tony Galento, and of course Jack Sharkey! Even Governor Paul Laxalt showed up.

Gaming pioneers were there too, including Warren Nelson (Club Cal-Neva), Norman Blitz (Tahoe Cal Neva, Bank Club, Holiday Casino), Wally Mason (Horseshoe Club), and Harvey Gross (Harvey's Casino). To be fair, Charlie Mapes needs to be considered a gaming pioneer too.

When the Mapes hotel-casino was finished in 1947, the 12-story tower was the tallest building in the entire state. The opening brought new attention to Reno and a who slew of new players, many with plenty of money, from places like Detroit, Kansas City, and the east coast. The hotel had fancy dining, a nice showroom, and a casino on the top floor that included blackjack, craps and roulette with fancy die-cut, metal-inlay chips..

Although the casino was often leased out to other operators, Charlie Mapes owned buildings in downtown Reno, ran the concessions at the airport, and opened Mapes Money Tree casino on the corner of Virginia and 2nd Streets in 1969. It closed ten years later. The Mapes hotel casino was closed in December, 1982.

Thanks for reading - Al W Moe

The Tahoe Village

2012-09-09T12:48:00.002-07:00

I always thought the photos of the Tahoe Village were cool. The building had a number of names, from its inception in 1945 as the original Tahoe Village with Mickey Wood financing. Bert Riddick was one of the casino owners, along with Skoff in 1946 and 1947, Elkins in 1948, and then Babe Arata and Walter Parman took a shot.

The club had a small motel next door for its visitors and the casino itself was circular, affording nice views of the lake across the street. Parman (as mentioned in The Roots of Reno) was busy with Reno clubs, so he gave up his interest as casino manager to Lou Watters, who changed the name to Casino de Paris and brought Parisian entertanment with beautiful cancan girls to small nightclub.

Frank Sinatra appeared at the request of Sammy Sellette, but his performance was flat and he was heckled from the crowd. He was so incensed that he never appeared at the lake again until purchasing an interest in the Cal-Neva Lodge six years later.

In 1955, Oliver M. Kahle and his partner, Ben Jaffe, bought the club and changed the name to Oliver's. Kahle upgraded the motel next door, adding a large pool that also had views of the lake. He tried unsuccessfully to rebuild the casino, which was making money, but there was a fire in 1963 that destroyed much of the building. Unable to rebuild, he sold the land to Douglas County and moved back to Las Vegas where he operated The Castaway's until Howard Hughes purchased the property.

Thanks for reading - Al W Moe

100-Pound Mountian Lion leaves Harrah's Reno

2012-08-25T16:02:00.001-07:00

Early Friday morning as the sun was peaking over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a young mountain lion mountain was turned-away from Harrah's Reno casino. Guests must be 21 years old to gamble and the cougar was only about two-years old according to old friend, Nevada Department of Wildlife spokesman Chris Healy.

Actually, the lion had trouble negotiating the revolving door at Harrah's casino's Virginia Street plaza and wandered over to an outdoor stage where it crawled underneath for safety. Police and emergency workers cordoned off the area and waited for officers from the Department of Wildlife to arrive. When they did, the animal was tranquilized before being taken away to be checked for injuries. Afterward, the animal was fitted with a GPS necklace.

Early Saturday morning the young lion was driven to Spooner Summit at Lake Tahoe and released a few miles from Highway 50 where it will have plenty of wild game to chase and more water available.

If I'm not mistaken, this is the first lion in a Reno casino since the MGM had their signature lion downstairs available for photo shoots.

Thanks for reading - Al W Moe

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/24/4755146/a-mountain-lion-in-a-casino-dont.html#storylink=cpy

Illegal Gambling Clubs of Toledo

2012-08-24T11:54:00.000-07:00

Illegal Gambling Clubs of Toledo

Terry Shaffer's new book, Illegal Gambling Clubs of Toledo, is just terrific. It's one of only a few books on illegal casinos and certainly the most complete.

Terry is a resident of Toledo and through hard work and a little luck, managed to get files and photos from back when the clubs were in operation. Many of the photos included have never been printed elsewhere.

The book coincides with the recent opening of Ohio's first legalized casinos, and collectors of casino memorabilia will be happy to see many Toledo chips and dice conclusively identified.

The book includes 72 different illegal gambling operations with photos, addresses, and dates of operation. The books 150 pages (8 x 11 softbound) includes a bibliography and a full index. You can get your copy now and enjoy!

Thanks for reading - Al W Moe