The story of a Harrah’s casino at Lake Tahoe, Nevada takes more than a few sentences to explain. To start with, Bill Harrah first ran a gambling game called “The Circle” in Venice, California.

When things got a bit dicey with the local Mayor and the Sheriff’s Office, Bill left his buddy, Bob Ring, to run the show and headed to a place his high school friend Kay had been talking about, Reno, Nevada.

Beginning in 1937, Harrah opened small clubs and hopscotched around the block in downtown Reno before landing a few winning Tango parlors. Eventually the club on Virginia Street became his main venture and featured his own name in neon, and not just as a Tango parlor, but as a true casino.

Ten years later, Harrah’s casino was a very nice, somewhat sprawling casino with plenty of slot machines, table games, restaurants, and favorites like keno and bingo. It stretched from Virginia Street, back across an alley and onto Center Street. Things were going well, but Bill couldn't expand any further, his neighbors were successful casinos and hotels and they weren't going anywhere.

In 1954, Bill took a trip up to Lake Tahoe to again peek-in on his competition. The clubs weren’t much, but boy could they pack-‘em in.

“Busy, busy, busy,” recalled Harrah. “We had a nice place and George’s was a crummy place and he was doin’ two or three times the business we were.”

While George Cannon ran a successful club, his Gateway casino only ran during the summer months. It was on the lake side of Highway 50, and May through September was its full season and the year's fun was almost over.

Months later, in January of 1955, Harrah’s banker, Eddie Questa, gave Bill the good news, the Gateway was for sale! Harrah took another ride up to the lake on a windy and frigid winter afternoon. With a strong wind burning his ears he walked the perimeter of the shuttered property, his feet crunching in snow, and made a decision. He had to buy the Gateway and make a real stand at Lake Tahoe, one that included gambling all year long.

In true Bill Harrah fashion, his real estate agent, Ben Edwards, got a deal down in writing in less than five days. It included the lease-purchase of several small clubs and a restaurant, and now Harrah’s casinos would be in Reno and Lake Tahoe.

Bill Harrah signed the papers to purchase George’s Gateway club at South Shore Lake Tahoe in January of 1955. Harrah’s club in Reno was doing well, but it really irked him that there could be so much action going on in the “crummy little clubs” at Lake Tahoe, compared to his nicer clubs in Reno. He just had to be a part of them.

After expanding the false facade like the other clubs had, Harrah’s maintenance department started going through the property to improve the heating and cooling systems, the water system, and reconditioning the small kitchen. Crews of workers also brought several truckloads of new, more liberal pay-off slot machines up to the new club.

The cleanup and expansion took longer than expected as the now dilapidated Quonset hut was being expanded into a more respectable, but still questionable, new club. Finally updated, the club opened on June 20th and business was excellent.

Harrah’s Lake Club displaced Dopey Norman’s, a small club run by Norman Reinburg from March of 1953, and Tony’s Club, another small property on the lake side of highway 50 run by Tony Grech and his manager, Rocky Basile.

Instead of shutting down shop like the casinos at Lake Tahoe had always done after Labor Day, Bill Harrah and Bob Ring came up with the idea of a year-round vacation spot. Although the property did not have hotel rooms, there were a few motels that were amenable to the idea of more winter business.

According to Bob Ring, “the Lake Club needed some reliable transportation, and we had to have the roads cleared at a more realistic rate than what would ever be done by Cal-Trans. Working with Greyhound was easy, Cal-Trans, forget about it."

“It was easier to just buy some snowplows and have our own workers do the roads. Some plows were leased and some were privately owned, but they did a super job. When the bus travelers arrived at the Lake Club they got a refund of their ticket, and a free dinner.”

Continued Ring, “I think we started with three chartered buses from San Francisco, and soon got to about 40 or 50 a day from more than two-dozen cities in Northern California.”

All of the properties at Lake Tahoe benefited from the added publicity ad success of the winter and then year-round bus service. Before the boom, however, Harrah managed to get control of the Stateline Country Club, which had been in business on the mountainside of Highway 50 for over 20 years.

Now there were Harrah’s casinos on each side of the highway, just as there were Harrah’s casinos on either side of what would become Lincoln Alley in Reno.

Bill Harrah’s move to Lake Tahoe coincided with an expansion of the Nevada Gaming Control Board and its desire to see larger, more stable (read: fair) casinos in all gaming areas, but especially at the lake.

Nick Sahati and a few family members owned the Stateline Country Club, and while they had been at the same location since a dozen years earlier, there were reasons they might like to sell their casino. Bill Harrah was all ears.

The Stateline became available for less than $500,000 because it included several leases on the 16-acre parcel that could not be terminated, but Bill was patient. He immediately expanded the old club and accepted his friendly neighbors like the original Main Entrance, first opened in the 1940’s by Frank Mercer.

By the mid-50’s, the club was owned by a Basque brick-mason who moonlighted by doing work for the local clubs, and was especially fond of Bill Harrah. Bob Ring said, “He did some brick work for us, but we seemed to always be paying more for the work than we should. He also had a habit of trying to scam us at out lunch counter. We just kept paying him until he decided to take $80,000 for the tiny club.” It worked out well for everybody involved.

Next to be purchased was Bud Beecher’s Nevada Club, that Harrah had to pay $2 million for. A couple smaller clubs, the Tahoe Palace and the Tahoe Plaza eventually became part of the new Harrah’s casino property also.

With the 1960 Olympics coming to nearby Squaw Valley, Harrah and Ring rushed to finish the South Shore Room dinner theater and an expanded casino. The 750-seat showroom opened in 1959 with comedian Red Skelton. The $3.5 million expansion brought a fine theater to the area and let Harrah’s casino stress first-class entertainment.

While Harrah's took on several face-lifts during the 1960’s, it was in the early 1970’s that Bill Harrah and his wife, Sherry, finally finished their dream hotel.

Building broke ground in 1972 and the 18-story tower afforded 250 beautiful rooms, each 500 square feet and featuring stocked bars, refrigerators, bathrooms with TV’s and phones, and amazing views of the lake and mountains.

An expansion to the hotel was completed just four years later that added 290 rooms and brought Harrah’s Lake Tahoe the distinction of being the first casino to ever earn a five-star diamond rating.

Over the years the property expanded to almost 2000 slot machines and 100 table games, but changes in the gaming industry have seen those totals shrink to more manageable proportions. The amenities at the property continue to draw repeat visitors and there are unbelievable views from the 18th story restaurants.

While Harvey Gross once had land Bill Harrah wanted, and Gross later purchased Harrah’s Lake Club for over $5 million before expanding his own property with a 12-story high-rise, the competing casinos built an underground walkway so their guests could comfortably walk between the casinos during the snowy winter.

Harvey’s expanded in 1987 and now has 740 hotel rooms. However, it was Harrah’s Entertainment group that eventually wound up owning both properties, paying nearly $650 million for Harvey’s.

Both properties continue to fill rooms in the summer and enjoy success throughout the year.

Bill Harrah signed the papers to purchase George’s Gateway club at South Shore Lake Tahoe in January of 1955. Harrah’s club in Reno was doing well, but it really irked him that there could be so much action going on in the “crummy little clubs” at Lake Tahoe, compared to his nicer clubs in Reno. He just had to be a part of them.

After expanding the false facade like the other clubs had, Harrah’s maintenance department started going through the property to improve the heating and cooling systems, the water system, and reconditioning the small kitchen. Crews of workers also brought several truckloads of new, more liberal pay-off slot machines up to the new club.

The cleanup and expansion took longer than expected as the now dilapidated Quonset hut was being expanded into a more respectable, but still questionable, new club. Finally updated, the club opened on June 20th and business was excellent.

Harrah’s Lake Club displaced Dopey Norman’s, a small club run by Norman Reinburg from March of 1953, and Tony’s Club, another small property on the lake side of highway 50 run by Tony Grech and his manager, Rocky Basile.

Instead of shutting down shop like the casinos at Lake Tahoe had always done after Labor Day, Bill Harrah and Bob Ring came up with the idea of a year-round vacation spot. Although the property did not have hotel rooms, there were a few motels that were amenable to the idea of more winter business.

According to Bob Ring, “the Lake Club needed some reliable transportation, and we had to have the roads cleared at a more realistic rate than what would ever be done by Cal-Trans. Working with Greyhound was easy, Cal-Trans, forget about it."

“It was easier to just buy some snowplows and have our own workers do the roads. Some plows were leased and some were privately owned, but they did a super job. When the bus travelers arrived at the Lake Club they got a refund of their ticket, and a free dinner.”

Continued Ring, “I think we started with three chartered buses from San Francisco, and soon got to about 40 or 50 a day from more than two-dozen cities in Northern California.”

All of the properties at Lake Tahoe benefited from the added publicity ad success of the winter and then year-round bus service. Before the boom, however, Harrah managed to get control of the Stateline Country Club, which had been in business on the mountainside of Highway 50 for over 20 years.

Now there were Harrah’s casinos on each side of the highway, just as there were Harrah’s casinos on either side of what would become Lincoln Alley in Reno.

Bill Harrah’s move to Lake Tahoe coincided with an expansion of the Nevada Gaming Control Board and its desire to see larger, more stable (read: fair) casinos in all gaming areas, but especially at the lake.

Nick Sahati and a few family members owned the Stateline Country Club, and while they had been at the same location since a dozen years earlier, there were reasons they might like to sell their casino. Bill Harrah was all ears.

The Stateline became available for less than $500,000 because it included several leases on the 16-acre parcel that could not be terminated, but Bill was patient. He immediately expanded the old club and accepted his friendly neighbors like the original Main Entrance, first opened in the 1940’s by Frank Mercer.

By the mid-50’s, the club was owned by a Basque brick-mason who moonlighted by doing work for the local clubs, and was especially fond of Bill Harrah. Bob Ring said, “He did some brick work for us, but we seemed to always be paying more for the work than we should. He also had a habit of trying to scam us at out lunch counter. We just kept paying him until he decided to take $80,000 for the tiny club.” It worked out well for everybody involved.

Next to be purchased was Bud Beecher’s Nevada Club, that Harrah had to pay $2 million for. A couple smaller clubs, the Tahoe Palace and the Tahoe Plaza eventually became part of the new Harrah’s casino property also.

With the 1960 Olympics coming to nearby Squaw Valley, Harrah and Ring rushed to finish the South Shore Room dinner theater and an expanded casino. The 750-seat showroom opened in 1959 with comedian Red Skelton. The $3.5 million expansion brought a fine theater to the area and let Harrah’s casino stress first-class entertainment.

While Harrah's took on several face-lifts during the 1960’s, it was in the early 1970’s that Bill Harrah and his wife, Sherry, finally finished their dream hotel.

Building broke ground in 1972 and the 18-story tower afforded 250 beautiful rooms, each 500 square feet and featuring stocked bars, refrigerators, bathrooms with TV’s and phones, and amazing views of the lake and mountains.

An expansion to the hotel was completed just four years later that added 290 rooms and brought Harrah’s Lake Tahoe the distinction of being the first casino to ever earn a five-star diamond rating.

Over the years the property expanded to almost 2000 slot machines and 100 table games, but changes in the gaming industry have seen those totals shrink to more manageable proportions. The amenities at the property continue to draw repeat visitors and there are unbelievable views from the 18th story restaurants.

While Harvey Gross once had land Bill Harrah wanted, and Gross later purchased Harrah’s Lake Club for over $5 million before expanding his own property with a 12-story high-rise, the competing casinos built an underground walkway so their guests could comfortably walk between the casinos during the snowy winter.

Harvey’s expanded in 1987 and now has 740 hotel rooms. However, it was Harrah’s Entertainment group that eventually wound up owning both properties, paying nearly $650 million for Harvey’s.

Both properties continue to fill rooms in the summer and enjoy success throughout the year

This history used with special permission of the author Al W. Moe. All rights are reserved by Al W. Moe Al is the author of several great books on Nevada Gaming History.

These stories and many more at found in the book "Nevada's Golden Age of Gambling" written by yours truly, AL W. Moe available from those crazy online bookstores like Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It is also available at Angelfire Press - where it gets shipped for FREE!