Gaming History - Week of December 23, 2007   December 23rd 2007 - Sunday 1950 - Las Vegas, NV.   La Rue Restaurant and Casino opens on the Las Vegas Strip, closes 7 months later.   December 24th 2007 - Monday 1905 - Houston Texas.   Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business tycoon, entrepreneur, investor, aviator, aerospace engineer, inventor, filmmaker and philanthropist. During his lifetime, he was known as the wealthiest self-made man in the world, despite the fact that he had inherited 75% of the family business upon the death of his father. As a maverick film tycoon, Hughes gained prominence in Hollywood from the late 1920s, making big-budget and often controversial films like The Racket (1928), Hell's Angels (1930), Scarface (1932), and The Outlaw (1943).Hughes formed the Hughes Aircraft Company in 1932, hiring numerous engineers and designers. He spent the rest of the 1930s setting multiple world air speed records and building the Hughes H-1 Racer and H-4 Hercules (now better known as the "Spruce Goose"). He also acquired and expanded Trans World Airlines (TWA, subsequently acquired by and merged with American Airlines) and acquired Air West, renaming it Hughes Airwest. . Link to: Howard Hughes Wikipedia 1951 - Las Vegas, NV.   The California Club operated from 1958 to 1973. Phil Long took over operation of the casino located at the corner of First and Fremont Street in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, 1958. The locals casino catered to local gamblers. It was owned and operated by Phil Long and partner George Milford and was a casino only without any hotel rooms. The California Club was sold to Steve Wynn in 1973. The California Club was combined into the Golden Nugget shortly after the purchase by Wynn. California Club California Club interior   December 25th 2007 - Tuesday 1899 - Boston Massachusetts.   Morris Barney Dalitz was born on December 25, 1899, in Boston, Massachusetts, to a Jewish family. He grew up in Michigan.He worked in his family's laundry business early on, but began his career in bootlegging when Prohibition began in 1919, and capitalized on his access to the laundry trucks in the family business. Additionally he developed a partnership with the Maceo syndicate which ran Galveston and supplied liquor from Canada and Mexico. Though he admitted under oath that he had been a bootlegger and had operated illegal gambling houses, Dalitz was never convicted of a crime.[5] During Senator Estes Kefauver's committee hearings (investigating organized crime) questioned his bootlegging, Dalitz said, "If you people wouldn't have drunk it, I wouldn't have bootlegged it." . Link to: Moe Dalitz Wikipedia Moe Dalitz 1966 - Los Angeles, CA.   Near the end of his life Dandolos was near-broke and playing $5 limit draw poker games in Gardena, California. When asked by a fellow player how he could once play for millions and now be playing for such small stakes, Dandolos supposedly replied "Hey, it's action, isn't it?" He died on Christmas Day in 1966 and was a charter inductee of the Poker Hall of Fame in 1979. Link to: Nick "The Greek" Dandolos Nick "The Greek" Dandolos 1989 - Las Vegas, NV.   Binion died of heart failure at the age of 85 on December 25, 1989 in Las Vegas. Poker great "Amarillo Slim" Preston suggested as an epitaph, "He was either the gentlest bad guy or the baddest good guy you'd ever seen." He was posthumously inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1990. . Link to: Wikipedia: Benny Binion Benny Binion   December 26th 2007 - Wednesday 1946 - Las Vegas, NV.   The Flamingo Las Vegas is a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Las Vegas, Nevada and is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment. The property includes a 77,000-square-foot (7,200 m2) casino along with 3,626 hotel rooms. The 15-acre (6.1 ha) site's architectural theme is reminiscent of the Art Deco and Streamline Moderne style of Miami and South Beach, with a garden courtyard housing a wildlife habitat featuring flamingos. It was the third resort to open on the Strip, and it is the oldest resort on the Strip still in operation today. The Flamingo has a Las Vegas Monorail station, the Flamingo/Caesars Palace station, at the rear of the property. After opening in 1946, it has undergone a number of ownership changes. Link to: The Flamingo Wikipedia   Link to: The Flamingo Website The original Flamingo before renovation in 1963 The Flamingo currently   December 27th 2007 - Thursday 1908 - Keyesport, Illinois.   He moved to San Diego, California at the age of nineteen, where he worked in a hotel. He also working on gambling ships, where gambling could take place in international waters. He purchased El Rancho Vegas in 1944.A year later, in 1945, he purchased Monte Carlo Club. In 1946, he sold El Rancho Vegas. With that money, he built the Desert Inn casino in 1947. However, he quickly sold most of his interest to businessman Moe Dalitz, owning only 17.5%. Another business partner was Hank Greenspun, the publisher of the Las Vegas Sun newspaper. He remained the public face of the Desert Inn. In the 1950s, he organized the Tournament of Champions, an annual golf tournament at the Desert Inn Golf Course shown on televised by NBC. He sold his share in 1964.Later, he developed Wilbur Clark’s Paradise Gardens, located at 4505 South Maryland Parkway, south of the Thomas & Mack Center. He also donated the land on which Guardian Angel Cathedral was built. Link to: Wilbur Clark Wikipedia Wilbur Clark 1945 - Reno, NV.   The Reno City Council licensed the Tonopah Club, at 1402 South Virginia Street, for roulette and blackjack. 1941   December 29th 2007 - Saturday 1979 - Atlantic City, NJ.   In November 1978, Bally's demolished the Marlborough-Blenheim and quickly cleared the land to begin building the Bally's Park Place Casino. On December 30, 1979, the casino opened with the newly renovated Dennis serving as its hotel. In 1989, Bally's constructed a 750-room hotel tower in a modern style, with an exterior of light pink glass. On July 2, 1997, The Wild Wild West Casino at Bally's opened as the second casino at Bally's.In 2000, Bally's Park Place changed its name and became Bally's Atlantic City. The adjacent Claridge Hotel and Casino was purchased and incorporated into Bally's in 2003, and was renamed the Claridge Tower. The boardwalk side of Bally's was renovated in 2009. The facade of the Dennis Tower was refurbished and a row of shops between the Dennis Hotel and the boardwalk were demolished, which opened the plaza of the Dennis Tower to the boardwalk. Link to: Bally's Park Place Wikipedia $1000 Chip <=== Previous Week Month Day   Next Week ===>