We got this super cool Keno card in the mail today . It's from the El Rio Club, which is very cool because that was a small club on the West side of Las Vegas. It's also extra cool because it's full of holes ! The keno runners would have used cards like this to lay over a customer's card, to see how many winning numbers were selected. We already had a keno card from the El Rio Club...and it's a different date than the one we received today, but it still provides a good example of how the keno cards worked...

And...because the El Rio is long gone, I'm taking advantage of the opportunity to show off some of our stuff...and some items from the UNLV online collection. Enjoy!!

The photo is from 1973

This is an excerpt from an article in the CCTN...

El Rio Tavern:
1905 North H St.
5/7/1954-4/28/1964

William Kee and his brother Frank, were born and raised in Hawthorne, Nevada. From 1954-1957 they owned and managed the El Rio
Club. They targeted the same clientele as the nearby Louisiana Club, and offered low-limit gambling and good food, Chinese as well as American. The El Rio Club hired blacks and Chinese Americans, then provided the training needed for them to be dealers.
While not as prosperous as the downtown or strip casinos, the Kee brothers lived very comfortably from the proceeds of the El Rio. When Bill Kee died, Frank took over as manager of the casino for a short time , then closed the club and moved to California. A group of Chinese Americans bought the El Rio and kept it open until 1964.

El Rio Club, Raleigh Hughes
3/8/1973-7/6/1978
During the Hughes ownership, the El Rio became known for the best barbeque and soul food in the neighborhood. In 1978 the El Rio was seized by the IRS for non-payment of taxes

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

These items are from UNLV special collections online...they are NOT in our collection...