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17 pieces from the Nevada Gaming History archive.
2026 · Nevada Gaming History
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
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2024 · Nevada Gaming History
I learned to play poker in West Springfield, Virginia, after my friend Barry Wilson invited me to play. We were high school freshmen, and the guys we ended up playing against were juniors and seniors. We both lost. In the coming weeks, we improved, but we were still dorks. To finance poker, Barry got a … Read more
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2023 · Nevada Gaming History
Nothing was more shocking in my gaming career than the bombing of Harvey’s Wagon Wheel Casino at South Shore Lake Tahoe in 1980, an incident that highlighted the volatility and risks of the gaming world. To be accurate, I wasn’t working there. I was spending the end of summer playing blackjack for a living. As … Read more
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2022 · Nevada Gaming History
The first casino chip I ever saved was from the Pacheco Inn after I lost $18 playing poker and saved three $1 chips. Being underage didn’t stop me from exploring the poker rooms in Northern California or casinos at Lake Tahoe, and I always found chips to collect, adding a bit of rebellious fun to … Read more
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2019 · Nevada Gaming History
What exactly 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 a universal urge. But chips, I’m not sure if they evoke the same instinct, yet they hold a special allure for many collectors like us. … Read more
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2019 · Nevada Gaming History
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 … Read more
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2015 · Nevada Gaming History
A slow day in Reno and at the casinos in July.
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2013 · Nevada Gaming History
I’ve thought “Totally Nevada” since I was a kid in the 1970s, when we traveled through the state. 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 … Read more
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2010 · Nevada Gaming History
So here we are, halfway between Casino Arizona’s Talking Stick Resort in 60 degrees Scottsdale and Buffalo Thunder, outside Santa Fe in New Mexico. All right, halfway may not be accurate. I can’t remember. Talking Stick has 497 rooms, Buffalo Thunder has 395. Heber, Arizona, along highway 260, 40 miles … Read more
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2010 · Nevada Gaming History
The 2010 edition of the CC>CC convention hits Las Vegas in just a few weeks. This year’s event is being held at the South Point Casino. Conventioneers will begin arriving as early as the 18th, but the main event, the show in the Grand Ballroom, opens to the public on June 24th at 10:00 AM … Read more
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2010 · Nevada Gaming History
Next door to Barney’s at Lake Tahoe was Harrah’s Sports Casino. I walked in and was surprised by how small it was. There were about a dozen chairs for a keno game, several TVs by the bar, a craps game, and half a dozen blackjack tables. They had little yellow signs with $1 to $100 … Read more
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2010 · Nevada Gaming History
Park Tahoe 1978 Post Card above is copyright RTSI The Park Tahoe, 1978, what an excellent location for a casino. The Park operated for a couple of years before becoming Caesar’s Tahoe, when management found they could not run the property profitably. When I arrived, I didn’t care about the casino names or what they … Read more
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2010 · Nevada Gaming History
So, what exactly is the scoop here, you might ask? I would have to say that I have sold out. I’ve been busy working a regular job and ignoring my blog, my articles, my books, and blah, blah, blah. Now, if you want to know about Lake Tahoe, well, I’ve got nothing for you but … Read more
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2009 · Nevada Gaming History
A few of you may vaguely remember this item – a 1985 issue of Bill Borland’s World Wide Casino Exchange Newsletter that featured a story on Harold’s Club. Bill started a company he called Star Time, Inc. from his offices in Las Vegas and began purchasing casino dice, chips, and other memorabilia in the late … Read more
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2008 · Nevada Gaming History
So, you have some one-of-a-kind chips? So do I. Well, not exactly, well, no, I don’t. However, I do have a few that have just a few cousins kicking around in drawers and collections. One of them is the chip above. This is an oversized variety, 42 mm, and has “SPEED POKER ALL-IN” on the … Read more
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2008 · Nevada Gaming History
I’ve been cleaning out the closets – opening boxes and sifting through a lot of old papers. Having collected casino items for thirty years now, you can imagine that I’ve met a lot of people in the hobby. Some of them I met at collector shows, like the one the Chip Collectors Club (CC>CC) puts … Read more
Read story →2008 · Nevada Gaming History
I saved my first casino chip in 1978. Although I wasn’t old enough to legally play poker at the Pacheco Inn (now the California Grand), I managed to get away with a few hours of lowball to start my playing career. I lost. I didn’t go home completely empty-handed, because, from the $20 in chips … Read more
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