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The blog, It Really Happened!, brings to life the fascinating stories of gambling-related:
Nevada Casino Dollar Tokens Quickly Become Hot Commodity
1965-1966 When Nevada’s casinos switched the form of currency accepted in their $1 slot machines to a token from the nearly extinct silver coin in 1965, it had an unexpected result. People around the world wanted to collect the new pseudo-money. Since the change went into effect following U.S. Treasury and Silver State approval in […]
Spite Leads to Creation and Destruction of World's "Most Sumptuous" Casino
1929-1933 Le Casino Municipal in Nice, France refused to cash Frank Jay Gould’s check so he could keep gambling there. This irked him. Gould wasn’t just a member of the bourgeoisie. Rather, he was an uber-wealthy American who’d been living and investing millions of dollars in various business ventures in the French Riviera since 1913. […]
Nevada: "Gambling and Prostitution Should Not Go Hand in Hand"
1954 Two gambling-related issues — cheating by operators and prostitution — in Nevada’s town of Searchlight came to a head at the July meeting of the state tax commission, then responsible for overseeing gaming. Regarding the roughly 300-resident community, commissioners 1) had heard rumors that its local ladies of the night mingled with customers in […]
West Coast IRS Men Bribe Gamblers
1940-1953 In 1946, Pat Mooney, chief field deputy of the Nevada Internal Revenue (IR) Bureau office, made gambler-Mobster Elmer “Bones” F. Remmer* an offer he couldn’t refuse. If the gambling club owner purchased $52,400 ($699,000 today) worth of shares in the Mountain City Consolidated Copper Co. (MCCCC) then his 1945 federal tax debt in that […]
Old Tales of Nevada
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The Mobsters section is dedicated to notables like them — criminal syndicate members involved in gambling. Bet you a cold beer or a hot latte you can’t ID everyone in the gallery.
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