Mark, the book "A Short History of Reno" had some interesting information about the beginning of Harrah's.

In the late 1920's Bills father, John, was running a "circle game" on the Venice Pier in California.
The game used marbles and playing cards. Bill was at U.C.L.A., studying girls and cars, but majoring in mechanical engineering. In 1930 he was kicked out for cheating on an exam. He re-joined his father, and helped him run his games.

Bill and his father had a lot of disagreements over how things should be run. John didn't treat his customers or his employees well, and Bill didn't like that. John lost interest in the game, and sold it to Bill for $500. "After awhile he found himself making $50,000 a year from the Circle Game, but he also began running into another problem. Games of chance had been tolerated for years along the Venice pier, but the atmosphere changed in the mid-1930's"

During election years, when the chief of police or the district attorney would run for re-election, they would crack down on gambling....close down the bingo games, etc. John Harrah had been a successful attorney (and mayor of Venice) before the 1929 stockmarket crash. Whenever the game was threatened he would object, pointing out that the game used marbles and playing cards, not bingo cards, and that it was a game of skill.

That approach worked, but there was still the constant threats of fines and the game being closed.

In 1937 Bill visited Reno, with no thought of conducting business there. He saw several prosperous bingo parlors, and wished he'd discovered Reno a year earlier. About a month after returning to California, Bill heard that one of the Bingo parlors on Center street had closed down. He went to Reno and "bought it real cheap".

"It was cheap for a reason: It was at Second and Center street, and that was then about three blocks away from the heart of the action. Harrah was able to keep it going just three months before going broke, but he had learned a lesson he remembered for the rest of his life: Location is everything in Reno."

������������ Sorry for such a long post...I thought it was interesting, and it does explain the location that opened and closed on Center street in 1937. The book doesn't name any other locations.... just says that at first Harrah was dealing with a few hudred dollars a day....he doubled the size of his small bingo parlor within a year....in 1942 he put in 20 slot machines, one crap table, one 21 game...when WWII ended, he began buying up surrounding properties in Reno: Mint Club, Bonanza Club, etc. "and his first properties at Lake Tahoe (The Gateway Club, the Stateline Country Club, and the Nevada Club).

It doesn't mention him having any other locations in Nevada, or any traveling games.