I've been a gambler my whole life, ever since I started pitching pennies and shooting marbles. I hate to lose, so most of my education came on the cheap, and I've stayed with games I could beat, and steered away from people and games I couldn't. Near the beginning, I was a nine-year-old kid playing... Continue Reading →
At the risk of beating a dead horse, I’ve finished another book that deals with Las Vegas casinos and the impact organized crime had on the city and its eventual financial health as the 1980s rolled around. However, Vegas and the Chicago Outfit is primarily about how the Outfit came to power, how its early... Continue Reading →
The first casino chip I ever saved was from the Pacheco Inn after I lost $18 playing poker and saved two $1 chips. I was underage, but that never stopped me from cruising the poker rooms in Northern California or casinos at Lake Tahoe, and I always found chips to collect. Now, as good as... Continue Reading →
In 1946, John and Alice Ross built the Christmas Tree casino way up near the top of Mount Rose with spectacular views leading down to Washoe Valley. In 1947 the couple added a restaurant with the help of a hand-shake $10,000 loan from Nick Abelman who drove past their joint every morning and every evening... Continue Reading →
The Tahoe Village at South Shore Lake Tahoe circa the 1940s Authoral - Al W Moe Bert Riddick Bert Riddick was a Native Nevadan, born in the tiny mining town of Carlin. His wife, Vivian's family, was from Ely, Nevada, and Bert and Vivian spent their lives in Northern Nevada, traveling between Tonopah, Ely, and... Continue Reading →
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 in Lake Tahoe, you could talk to Doc at the bar, any night after 9 pm and get a bet down. Nickle lines were... Continue Reading →
Bill Harrah came to Nevada to open casinos in the 1930s.
Reno gaming pioneer Nick Abelman's life in casinos
It's been nearly 100 years since Robert Sherman gave his Cal-Neva cabin at Lake Tahoe's North Shore to Norman Biltz, who leased it to Bill Doyle, who opened a little casino, who did well enough to convince Biltz to sell it to Bill Graham and James McKay. Yeah, that's not even the beginning of the... Continue Reading →
Steve Pavlovich was born in Yugoslavia in 1889. He came to America armed with dreams and a promise of a good life. What he found were rough-and-tumble characters who would rather beat you for your pennies than give you the time of day. He traveled from New York to New Jersey to Wyoming before arriving... Continue Reading →
What is it exactly that makes people collect casino chips? Is it the round shape? After all, who hasn't taken a coin of some type and flipped it - heads, tails, heads, tails............that's got to be a universal urge. But chips, I'm not sure. The fact that you can hold a chip in your hand... Continue Reading →
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Nevada Gaming History 