1925 As of 1915, Nevada gambling law only allowed slot machines that discharged tokens, or bingles, exchangeable for on-site merchandise; those that paid out in money or bingles redeemable for currency were forbidden. “The fact remains, however, that the illegal money machines are running unmolested all over the state and particularly in Reno, under the…
1941 In an override of Governor Edward Carville’s veto, Nevada legislators legalized bookmaking. The law explained that “the receiving of bets or wagers on horse races held without the state of Nevada shall be deemed to be a gambling game,” thereby making it permissible for those with a gambling license to take such bets on such events.
1960-1967 Los Angeles mobsters, Louis Tom Dragna and John “The Bat” Battaglia, conversed in a hotel-casino cocktail lounge on the Las Vegas Strip one day in February 1960. But their visit was cut short when Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) agents appeared with local police who arrested the two. They charged them with vagrancy and…
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 Khoury to Bob “The Fixer” Smith, who’d been prominent in Vegas’ gambling industry in the 1930s. Subsequently, Smith allegedly purchased…
1960 Bookies throughout Nevada had been taking wagers right and left on who’d win the upcoming U.S. presidential election — Senator John F. Kennedy (Dem.) or Vice President Richard Nixon (Rep.). Suddenly, in November, they were forced to stop doing so when a news story was published about the forgotten Silver State law of 1919…
1930 In December, while vacationing in Southern California, Nevada Governor Frederick “Fred” Balzar — foretelling the future — told reporters that gambling already was wide open in his state and that a bill making it official certainly would be brought before the legislature at its next session. It did happen; Silver State lawmakers legalized gaming in March…
1906-1909 An allegedly underaged young man, Master Wadell, gambled at various games from poker to faro and lost big over the winter of 1906-1907. His preferred playhouse was the Sixty-Six casino in the mining town of Rhyolite, Nevada. Subsequently, he sued the club’s three owners for what he claimed were his total losses — $10,000…
1955 When Nevada legislators legalized gambling in 1931, they didn’t consider one significant caveat. The omission came to light in January 1955 when an industrious Las Vegas casino patron was arrested for using Mexican 10 centavo coins in 25 cent slot machines — an act called slot slugging. Apparently, the coins fit perfectly. The judge…
1931-1965 Nevada’s early gambling industry was “wrapped in a segregated White Curtain” (Reno Gazette-Journal, Feb. 27, 2008). Between 1931, when Nevada legalized gambling, and 1965, African Americans were banned from gambling or even being present in the Silver State’s Caucasian-owned casinos, for fear their presence would scare away white patrons. Typically, any black person who…
1931 Despite an influx of newsmen into town to report what gambling now looked like in Nevada’s biggest city immediately following legalization, a move they described as “reviving the days of the pioneer west,” the status quo endured (Nevada State Journal, March 21, 1931). “There was no wild rush to the gambling resorts and the…