California 2 – Reno – Las Vegas.

A little confusing? Let me try to clear that up a little.

This is kind of a long story but a good one. Documents the bribing of a county sherriff, bootlegging, and a gambling empire associated with Chinese gangs going back to the 1920’s.

Can any of you experts translate the Chinese Chars?

Las Vegas:

No way too soon in this post, read to the end.

Reno: NOT!!!

The ABC chips both a $5 and $10, were sold into the hobby a few years ago as The Allan Boyd Club, Reno, NV. Why not? The monogram matches the name of the club. DUH!

They were listed in TCR 11.

The new authors of TCR had the Mason record card pulled on the ABC chip. They are California chips. They are no longer listed in TCR 12. Kudos to the new authors.

There is also a small crown chip with chinese writing only listed for The Allan Boyd Club in TCR 12. The new authors of TCR had the TR King record card pulled on the chip. It is a California chip. It will not be listed TCR 13 . Kudos to the new authors.

They did this on their own and I had no knowledge this had happened.

Along comes Gene!

I got the red $10 ABC in a trade and sent for the Mason ID. It could not be found but I was made aware of the above history.

Ok I was drawing dead on the ABC ID but it dawned on me I had never heard of The Allan Boyd Club. I decided to look into it. Never had a gaming license. I could find no proof the club ever existed. No chips ever found with that name on them. There are 4 more SqSqRt chips with chinese chars only listed for the club.

I got this email:
Hi Gene,

I have immensely enjoyed your illegal stories, personal remembrances, etc.

I just have a question about one chip.

The best Reno Historians Dwayne Kling, Guy LaRocha and Al Moe all say there was no Allen Boyd Club in Reno. Yet it shows up as a legit attribution in the chip books.

When I first proposed the question Dwayne and Guy spent weeks in the city offices looking at how the land was platted. Nothing.

I think it would be helpful if the buck stopped with you. You have the records and knowledge but it would be nice to know the story.

Thanks for your stories. Please establish somewhere where it's all available.

Hope all is well.

Mark Englebretson

Wait a minute the 4 best Reno historians associated with our club Dwayne Kling, Mark Englebretson, Guy LaRocha, and Al Moe say The Allan Boyd Club did not exist. I needed a 2nd opinion, ok a 5th opinion.

I called Phil Jensen CCGTCC Hall of Fame who spent a lot of time in Reno. He more or less said the attributation was BS! It never existed.

Thats 5 and good enough for me. I started lobbying the authors of TCR to remove The Allan Boyd Club from our book. They are probably tired of my emails by now.

In the mean time the ABC chip languished in my large pile of UFC chips for several months.

Enough of that:

OOPS! Good news the Mason record for the ABC chips was found.

Las Vegas:
No too soon in this post, read to the end. A little torture never hurt anyone.

California:

ABC
Argonaut Liquor Company
and
Bing Kong Tong

My note: Chinese Char was put on after delivery of the chips from Mason Co. Not sure what or how it was put on but the ink won’t smear. Seems to be on there to stay.

John Joseph “Babe” Bottaro, a Sacramento native of Italian immigrant parents, died in his home town in 1951 age 57. He was a well known sportsman who was a bootlegger during prohibition and tavern owner and liquor dealer after the repeal of the 18th amendment.

When the chips were ordered, 517 Eye (or I) St. was the location of Bottaro’s liquor business, Argonaut Liquor Company. The Chinese char on the chips are interesting since Bottaro was reportedly the only “Caucasian” member of the Bing Kong Tong. The Bing Kong Tong was located about a block away from the Argonaut Liquor Company (I St., between 2nd & 6th, was the heart of Sacramento’s Chinatown).

Here’s a pic of Bottaro around 1936:

Bottaro and his wife Dixie around 1950:

1938 pic of Argonaut Liquor Co. at 517 Eye St.:

1927 ad:

1936 ad (lot of Italians at Argonaut; the top three guys in the company held the same positions when the chips were ordered in 1946—ABC could be constructed from their first names; (maybe a bit of a stretch)

My note: Maybe not a stretch!

1947 ad:

Oakland Tribune—1Dec1926 (chips become part of a legal issue):

Oakland Daily Tribune—28Dec1926
Bottaro, Pechart and the Yolo County Sheriff all under Federal indictment and out on $10,000 bail (a few months later Bottaro goes into the Bail Bond Business).

Woodland Daily Democrat—12Jan1927 (the Federal Indictment mentioned was for violation of the Volstead Act):

This was close to 20 years before the ABC chips were delivered.
Broderick’s was one on the Chinese buildings on the Thomas O’Connor property in Sacramento. May be the 1st clue why the Chinese Char was put on the ABC chips.
Woodland Daily Democrat—21Feb1927:

Ok the torture is over. At long last we have a real “Illegal” Las Vegas Casino.

Las Vegas 1930:

The Hideaway Inn can not be associated with the ABC chips but one of the guys that used the ABC chips in 1946 ran an illegal casino in LV 16 years prior to the ABC chips being made.

Gambling was made legal in NV in 1931.

I feel certain there was a lot of Illegal casino’s in LV prior to 1931 but this is the 1st time I ever saw an operators name, a Club name, and an arrest record for illegal gambling.

I did not even know there was a Nevada gambling statute forbidding gambling. I guess I thought we were the Wild Wild West prior to 1931. Can you imagine someone being charged with Felony Gambling in LV.

Ok who has chips from the Hideaway Inn? Maybe Pam has pictures of it.

Pechart, who shows-up in these articles, was considered a kingpin of Sacramento gambling for many years. In 1930 he spent some time in Vegas operating a place called the Hideaway Inn. It was raided by the Clark County DA in Sept.1930 and Pechart was charged with felony violation of the Nevada gambling statute.