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A Man Who Preferred Working to Watching Nevada gaming history is full of loud personalities — moguls, mobsters, and showmen who loved seeing their names in neon. Karl E. Berge wasn’t one of them. If anything, he seemed happiest when nobody was looking. He didn’t chase headlines or cultivate a public persona. He just quietly … Read more
Meyer Lansky (born Maier Suchowljansky, July 4, 1902 — January 15, 1983) is remembered in twentieth-century American crime history less as a street-level gangster than as the architect of organized crime’s finances. Born in what is now Belarus and raised in New York’s Lower East Side, Lansky became the calculator and banker of the National … Read more
The List Nobody Wanted to Be On and the First Fifty Names Nevada has always had a complicated relationship with the people who built its casinos. The state wanted the tax revenue, the jobs, the tourism, and the bright lights, but it didn’t want the men who made those lights possible. At least, not in … Read more
A Complete Historical Narrative of Ownership, Construction, Mob Influence, and Legacy Few casinos in Las Vegas carry the weight of history quite like the El Cortez Hotel & Casino. Opened in 1941 and still operating today, it is the longest‑running casino in continuous operation* in Las Vegas, a living artifact from the city’s pre‑Strip era. … Read more
Carson City is the Capital of Nevada, but in the late ’70s, when I was there, it had fewer than 30,000 residents. It’s a miracle there were half a dozen casinos to choose from. Being a gambling man, I thought it was a good bet to get married at 19, in Carson City, and stay … Read more
Carson City is one of my favorite towns. It’s the Capital of Nevada, to start with. Plus, my parents got married there many moons ago. Following suit, I was also married in the gambling town, and unlike my prowess at the blackjack tables, I lost my ass on that deal. Is that too much information? … Read more
Charles “Lucky” Luciano—born Salvatore Lucania in Lercara Friddi, Sicily in 1897—was the architect of the modern American Mafia. His career spanned the brutal street gangs of the Lower East Side, the Prohibition empires of the 1920s, the reorganization of the Mafia into the Five Families in 1931, and his eventual fall through prosecution, imprisonment, and … Read more
Nothing Lasts Forever When George Wingfield arrived in Nevada in the final years of the nineteenth century, the state was still more frontier than settled society. The great silver bonanza of the Comstock Lode had faded into legend. Towns that once blazed with lamps and speculation had sunk into dust and memory. Yet Nevada remained … Read more
In 1931, Nevada made a decision that would permanently reshape its identity: it legalized wide-open gambling. The move is often portrayed as inevitable, but the truth is far more nuanced. The legalization effort was driven not by casino owners or urban political machines, but by a quiet rancher from Humboldt County — Assemblyman Phil Tobin … Read more
Introduction Few forces shaped the early development of Las Vegas as profoundly as the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund, controlled by union president Jimmy Hoffa and administered by his trusted lieutenant Allen Dorfman. Between the mid 1950s and the late 1970s, the fund became one of the most important—and controversial—sources of capital for casino construction, … Read more