The story of a Harrah’s casino at Lake Tahoe, Nevada takes more than a few sentences to explain. To start with, Bill Harrah first ran a gambling game called “The Circle” in Venice, California.
When things got a bit dicey with the local Mayor and the Sheriff’s Office, Bill left his buddy, Bob Ring, to run the show and headed to a place his high school friend Kay had been talking about, Reno, Nevada.
Beginning in 1937, Harrah opened small clubs and hopscotched around the block in downtown Reno before landing a few winning Tango parlors. Eventually the club on Virginia Street became his main venture and featured his own name in neon, and not just as a Tango parlor, but as a true casino.
Ten years later, Harrah’s casino was a very nice, somewhat sprawling casino with plenty of slot machines, table games, restaurants, and favorites like keno and bingo. It stretched from Virginia Street, back across an alley and onto Center Street. Things were going well, but Bill couldn't expand any further, his neighbors were successful casinos and hotels and they weren't going anywhere.
In 1954, Bill took a trip up to Lake Tahoe to again peek-in on his competition. The clubs weren’t much, but boy could they pack-‘em in.
“Busy, busy, busy,” recalled Harrah. “We had a nice place and George’s was a crummy place and he was doin’ two or three times the business we were.”
While George Cannon ran a successful club, his Gateway casino only ran during the summer months. It was on the lake side of Highway 50, and May through September was its full season and the year's fun was almost over.
Months later, in January of 1955, Harrah’s banker, Eddie Questa, gave Bill the good news, the Gateway was for sale! Harrah took another ride up to the lake on a windy and frigid winter afternoon. With a strong wind burning his ears he walked the perimeter of the shuttered property, his feet crunching in snow, and made a decision. He had to buy the Gateway and make a real stand at Lake Tahoe, one that included gambling all year long.
In true Bill Harrah fashion, his real estate agent, Ben Edwards, got a deal down in writing in less than five days. It included the lease-purchase of several small clubs and a restaurant, and now Harrah’s casinos would be in Reno and Lake Tahoe.
End of Part One.
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