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The blog, It Really Happened!, brings to life the fascinating stories of gambling-related:
Midwestern Casino Worker Leads Double Life
1933-1972 It was a typical Tuesday at the First National, and only, bank in the small Spring Valley, Minnesota community, population about 2,000, until gunmen burst through the doors and ordered everyone to lie on the floor or get in the criminals’ car outside. One of the three abrupt intruders had gold-capped teeth. He was […]
Murder on a Gambling Ship on the High Seas
1932 “There are no dull moments on the Rose Isle,” the invitation to prospective customers for dinner and dancing on the Southern California gambling ship read. Apparently, the excitement also included murder. The Crime and The Ship Alerted to trouble by the ship’s bulldogs Toots and Boots at around 2 a.m. on a Tuesday, a […]
Gambler Adds Device to Get Roulette, Craps Defined as Slot Machines
1937 After Florida legalized slot machines in 1935, casino operator Myrton “Mert” Wertheimer, 53, devised a way to also get craps and roulette, unlawful at the time, allowed under the new rule. (Previously, only dog and horse race betting were legal, as of 1931.) Capitalizing on Wording Wertheimer, who ran the gambling at the Royal […]
Three Brothers Build Legacy in 20th Century U.S. Gambling
1907-1958 Wertheimer was their name. Three of these four Michigan-born brothers became full-fledged, successful gambling operators in the first half of the 1900s, their reach spanning five states: Michigan, Ohio, Florida, California and Nevada. “As gamblers, Al, Mert and Lou became almost as well-known Detroiters as the automobile pioneers. However, the only thing the Wertheimers […]
Old Tales of Nevada
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