Corpus Christi Caller-Times from Corpus Christi, Texas • 81

fey Drf Sly By JOHN GUNTHER Gaudy neon signs beckon to the visitor attack while shooting craps at the Desert Inn Just before the Stardust was to open Cornero was a thug but he had guts While struggling for a license he put ads in the newspapers comparing his own record with those of some Nevada officials He cared only for big gambling grumbling over housewives losing their money hr slot machines "Gambling is only for people who can afford he would say Today the Stardust sits like a deserted sepulchre its 1502 empty rooms mocking the memory of those who built it It never opened Las Vegas as almost everybody knows is a double entity Downtown in the city proper except for slot machines which are everywhere is restricted to a couple of blocks on Fremont Street which beckon to the visitor with gaudy neon signs The Joints here have plenty of money and do a landslide business but they are not in the same class as the sumptuous casino-hotels on The Strip The Strip five minutes outside the city limits is a four-and-a-half-mile section of 91 the highway that connects Las Vegas with Los Angeles The hotels here on each side of the road are what give Vegas its unique quality and make it as the local boosters proudly assert the "entertainment capital of the Gambling in Nevada is licensed and controlled by the State Tax Commission consisting of the Governor and six members One of these must be a livestock man another a mining man (livestock and mining are along with gambling biggest industries) and another a banker The Governor appoints the other commissioners except one who holds his Job ex-officio which means that the Governor is in effect czar of gambling in Nevada Anybody applying for a license to open a casino or resort hotel is in theory at least thoroughly investigated He is fingerprinted and his bank accounts and earnings are checked And a gambling Joint can lose its license for failing to conduct its public relations with "dignity and good or for catering to or employing persons who may bring "discredit" to the gaming industry A license may be refused on the basis of a "habits and antecedents" a pretty broad and the authorities do their best to keep out of Las Vegas anybody who has a blatant police record or who is a member of a syndicate But it is difficult to fin out what "hidden money" may be behind the big hotels Politics enters licensing because Gambler as an example may try to exert influence to keep his rival Gambler from being licensed The way to get things done is to "know the right Sometimes pressure to get a license for somebody comes from perfectly legitimate contractors building supply people labor unions real estate mien and the like who stand to gain by the building of a new casino If you are building a hotel it must be two-thirds completed (or thereabouts) before you can even apply for a license This is to ensure that promoters do not sell stock in the venture on speculation But obviously nobody but a crazy man is going to invest $5000000 or more in a new luxury hotel unless he is at least fairly sure that the license will be forthcoming Smart gamblers like to take a chance things like that Before I describe the Strip hotels how they operate and who runs them here are the main points about Nevada gambling in general First: Not only is gambling legal in Nevada it is on the level There may be a few fleabitten villages with crooked wheels or lopsided dice but the big Reno and Vegas hostelries and Joints are strictly honest They have to be The hotels may be full of shady money but the games are straight The innocent visitor may lose his shirt or even his undershirt but he be rooked Second: Gambling is a big business a veritable -industry Gross income from gambling in Nevada reached $104000000 in 1955 of which about $60-000000 came from Las Vegas Considering that Nevada is the smallest state in the union in population and a state not overly rich in most respects this is a very substantial sum indeed Gambling has been taxed in Nevada since 1949 and the tax ranges from three to five and one-half per cent of the gross depending on the size of business There also are license fees and taxes on individual tables slot machines and other devices City and county authorities collect taxes too so that the tax bill of a big casino comes to a lot of money One striking point is that no really accurate inspection of the cash take on which the most important tax depends is possible The big casinos run 24 hours a day in three shifts without interruption and the money is hauled off and counted after each shift Then it goes to the casino vaults and is eventually sent to Los Angeles or elsewhere by armored car Obviously the state' cannot afford to have inspectors to watch (Continued on following page) John Gunther world-famous for hit books 8 Europe "Inside Asia "Inside Latin America and "Inside found his assignment to Uft the lid off Las Vegas the gambling capital of America "the most fascinating inside torg I've ever THE EDITORS Most of the politics racketeering and skulduggery in Las Vegas the fancy little resort town built on wheels and dice hang on the (not licenses given out by the state of a Nevada Without these licenses Las great hotels and casinos could not exist A prime sight of this bouncing El Dorado is a club called the Horseshoe on Fremont Street Here $1000000 in cash is kept neatly on permanent display in the form of 100 crisp $10000 bills pasted in a frame Just Inside the door This costs the management almost $45000 a year in interest and more in insurance but is worth it in publicity Undeniably the million dollars in cold cash is impressive But the small buff rectangle of paper that constitutes the gaming license in every casino which usually hangs inside the cage is much more valuable if the casino is doing well So that though never been a gambling murder in Nevada the struggle to get a license can be almost literally a matter of life and death As a matter of fact for Tony Cornero a hoodlum with a face like a death mask it was a matter of death! Tony was a character He liked to make the crazy fantastic claim that he Earl Warren now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court He figured it out this way: When he was illegally operating gambling boats in Santa Monica bay California to which customers came by water taxis Warren then Attorney General of California cracked down The resultant publicity and excite-ment according to neat theory was what brought Warren to fame for the first time Tony tnoved into Nevada with only $6500 in his Jeans He proceeded to raise $6500000 to build the Stardust Hotel with 2800 stockholders He applied for a gaming license and Governor Charles Russell knowing his background said: long as governor Cornero will never get a reply was: get a license or be carried out feet Two remarkable things then happened First he did get a license largely through the influence of many friends in high places on condition he lease the Stardust not run it himself Promptly he put his own men in as lessees Second he was carried out of Las Vegas feet first! He died of a heart I Aigwt It IMS.