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$7.00 postpaid for this illegal game chip of Benny Binion's Southland Hotel, Dallas, Texas, 1944. New find. Identified through the manufacturer's records. Picture below. PayPal OK.
I just got and identified this chip via the manufacturer records on David Spragg's Preserving Gaming History page. The manufacturer's card and both sides of the chip are shown in the scan below. In 1926 Benny Binion opened his own permanent craps game in room 226 of the Southland Hotel, Dallas TX (the hotel was owned, by the way, by Sam Maceo, the Galveston mob boss). In 1928 he added policy (numbers game) and other games to his operations. The room was headquarters for Binion's gang, called the "Southland Hotel Group" or "Dallas Syndicate." In 1946 Binion expanded his operations to Las Vegas.
Binion's right hand men at the Southland were Ivy Miller and Red Scarborough. Note that Ivy Miller's name and Southland Hotel, Dallas, Texas, make up the shipping address for the chips, on the card below -- the same chip sold here -- same harp rim mold, gray color and style of $1.00 and horseshoe imprint. (Binion must have liked the horseshoe design -- his famous casino in Las Vegas is named Binion's Horseshoe, of course.)
I don't mean to make this post a history, but I'll throw in a few points:
¶ Sam Murray was the major rival to Binion in Dallas. Ivy Miller, Binion's "dependable gunsel" rubbed out Murray about 1938 after Murray moved into Binion's territory. Murray's bodyguard was Herbert "the Cat" Noble, who took over Murray's operations after Murray was killed. This led to a "20-year gang war" in Dallas and Ft. Worth, ending with the bombing death of Noble (after many attempts on his life) in 1951.
¶ In my readings I noticed that at times Ivy Miller co-ran the Cipango Club and the "Top of the Hill" Club, probably others as well.
¶ I don't know how long Miller was active in the rackets. I notice that reference to him was made in testimony in the 1950 Kefauver Commission hearings and the JFK assassination-Oswald-Jack Ruby hearings.
¶ Most of the information here is from the October 1991 "Texas Monthly" article "Benny and the Boys" by Gary Cartwright. This link to the article works for me. It can also be copy-pasted into the browser:
http://books.google.com/books?id=uisEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA139&lpg=PA139&dq=benny+binion+texas+dallas+ivy+miller&source=bl&ots=exTAefB4_S&sig=oE6cVfBkczf0QOKTK8okZ-2kniA&hl=en&ei=9yr3S97pEsH_lgeG8YHvCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=benny%20binion%20texas%20dallas%20ivy%20miller&f=false
Robert
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