Casino, Gambling Saloon, Card Club Fronts / Workers / Bookmakers / Dealers Archives

Casino History Casino, Gambling Saloon, Card Club Fronts / Workers / Bookmakers / Dealers Casino, Gambling Saloon, Card Club, Slot Route Owners / Operators / Licensees / Gamblers Club Primadonna (Reno, NV) Crimes / Violence / Punishments: Robbery / Theft / Embezzling Ernest "Ernie" J. Primm Gambling History Gaming History It Really Happened Law Enforcement / Judicial System: Lawsuit Nevada Reno--Nevada United States

Casino Owner Blackballs Worker?

1956-1959 A thief absconded with $2,000 (about $17,500 today) from the Club Primadonna casino in Reno, Nevada on the first Friday of May 1956. The missing 10,000 dimes, 2,000 quarters and 1,000 half-dollars, the reserve…

California Casino History Charles Cora Crimes / Violence / Punishments: Firearms Crimes / Violence / Punishments: Hanging Crimes / Violence / Punishments: Murder / Killing Fort Gunnybags (San Francisco, CA) Gambling History Gaming History It Really Happened Law Enforcement / Judicial System Law Enforcement / Judicial System: General William Richardson Law Enforcement / Judicial System: Vigilance Committee San Francisco--California United States

California Faro Dealer Loses It ... All

1855-1856 Charles and Arabella “Bell” Cora were a colorful, rich and well-known San Francisco couple whose lives jolted into misfortune one Saturday night in 1855. He, 39, had made his money from dealing faro in…

Crimes / Violence / Punishments: Shooting It Really Happened James Mann / Bernard Louvre Saloon (Goldfield, NV) Oberon (Reno, NV) Reno--Nevada United States Wieland Saloon (Reno, NV)

Gambler's Drunken Stupidity

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…

Caesars Palace (Las Vegas, NV) Gambling: Debt It Really Happened Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder Las Vegas Strip / S. Las Vegas Boulevard Nathan "Nate" S. Jacobson

Let's Get Ready to Rumble

1975 In the spring, Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder, a Las Vegas oddsmaker and bookie, allegedly punched, knocked down and kicked casino magnate, Nathan “Nate” S. Jacobson, in a Caesars Palace hallway in a confrontation over…

Advertisements Casino, Gambling Saloon, Card Club Fronts / Workers / Bookmakers / Dealers Harold S. Smith, Sr. Harolds Club (Reno, NV) It Really Happened Las Vegas Strip / S. Las Vegas Boulevard Las Vegas--Nevada Reno--Nevada

Men Please Do Not Apply

1937-1970 Card dealing was a male-dominated profession in Nevada’s casinos until 1937, when Harolds Club, in Reno, put the first woman at a 21 table to deal. Co-owner Harold Smith previously had been hiring women,…

California Crimes / Violence / Punishments: Tax Evasion Flamingo (Las Vegas, NV) Gambling: Bookmaking Governing / Regulatory Bodies: Internal Revenue Service Hy Goldbaum It Really Happened Las Vegas--Nevada McNeil Island Corrections Center (WA) Stardust (Las Vegas, NV) West Hollywood--California

Bookies' Bookies Not So Good With Numbers

1945-1955 In the late 1940s, three bookies — or commissioners, as they preferred to be called — operated on California’s Sunset Strip in West Hollywood under the name, Golden News Service. Hy Goldbaum, George Capri…

Allen Smiley Club Savoy (Las Vegas, NV) Crimes / Violence / Punishments: Cheating / Fleecing Flamingo (Las Vegas, NV) Gambling Laws / Regulations Games / Races: Craps It Really Happened Jack Durant Las Vegas--Nevada Louis "Russian Louie" Strauss Norman Khoury

Dirty Dealings in Las Vegas

1949-1953 Only months after Cleveland bar owner, Norman Khoury’s 1949 acquisition of Club Savoy in Las Vegas, Nevada, California mobster/gambler Allen Smiley, an associate of the then-deceased Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, unexpectedly approached him. Smiley introduced…