Merchant's Club
15 E 4th St.
Newport, KY

40's-50's

Owned by the Cleveland Syndicate.
Operated by brothers Martin Miller and Joe Berman (Martin changed his last name.) Third operator was Red Masterson. We have a hub mold card on chips being delivered to Red at the Merchants. Martin was a real gentleman. Martin was married to Nicki Ball. Nicki Ball was murdered in LV. It was a big story at the time. Joe was not a nice man. He arrived in Newport on the run from a KC killing. The Nason's hid him out and gave him his 1st lessons in how to use a Thompson sub machine gun.

Red Masterson's nickname in Newport was "The Enforcer". He lived up to the name. He was known to have erased a number of people from the Newport gambling scene. He also burned Beverly Hills the 1st time it burned, killing a young girl. He paid someone to take the fall for the arson.

The Merchants was a very popular night spot. It had a $50 limit on action.
The trio also operated the Yorkshire in its early days. They turned it over to another pair of brothers the Levinson's, Sleepout Louie Levinson wound up in charge after his brother moved on to the LV gambling scene. Sleepout got his name because he would sleepout between and during hands in a poker game. It was not a wise move to raise him while he was sleepingout.
All named above had ties to Moe Dalitz and LV gambling

The Newport joints closed in 1960-61.
Dealers, boxmen, and floormen from the joints (150 joints in 1960) became part of what has been called the "Newport Air Lift" when they mirgrated to LV.

I played poker with all named above after 1961. If not for Martin Miller, I might not be a chip collector. One night at a poker game he gave me a bag of chips and said " hang on to these, someday they might be worth something."
The chips were mostly Newport illegals but there was a number of LV chips in the bag.