KEY TAKEAWAYS
On March 19, 1931, Nevada Governor Fred B. Balzar signed Assembly Bill 98, the law that allowed commercial casino gambling, including games such as craps, roulette and twenty-one, to operate openly in the state again. He signed a six-week divorce residency law the same day. The Las Vegas Evening Review-Journal gave the signing one short paragraph, yet historians now call it one of the most important days in Nevada history, and the sources disagree about whether the law created legal gambling or restored it. This article tells the story as a dated narrative: the failed attempts that came before, the bill’s path through the Legislature, what the law said, the first licenses, and the points on which the record is disputed.
Why It Took Years to Pass
Nevada’s earlier gambling history shapes the story. According to the UNLV News Center, Nevada first legalized commercial gambling in 1869 and criminalized it in 1909 under Progressive pressure. The Nevada Legislature’s research history says that the 1909 law prohibited all gaming after October 1, 1910, that the ban was briefly repealed in 1911 and reimposed in 1913, and that illegal establishments kept operating in many cities.
Historian Eric N. Moody, in a 1994 Nevada Historical Society Quarterly article, describes the situation more precisely. The state statute in effect at the start of 1931 made it a felony to play popular percentage games such as faro, twenty-one, roulette and craps for money, but it allowed social card games with small stakes and some pari-mutuel betting on horse racing. Beginning in 1919, an attorney general’s opinion let cities license certain table games in which the deal alternated and the house took no percentage. Illegal games flourished behind closed doors, and Moody finds no significant public pressure to change the law.
The push came from gamblers and business interests. Moody reports that a 1925 proposal to remove most restrictions was defeated in the Assembly by nearly two to one, and that a 1927 bill, AB 141, passed the Assembly 22 to 12 but lost in the Senate by nine to eight after a wave of public protest. The Great Depression improved the outlook. A Review-Journal profile of the period notes that the Winnemucca Chamber of Commerce polled its members as the 1931 session opened, and that only one of 69 merchants refused to sign a petition favoring legal gaming.
Assembly Bill 98 Moves Through the Legislature
On February 13, 1931, Assemblyman Philip M. Tobin introduced the measure as Assembly Bill 98, according to Moody. Tobin was a first-year Republican rancher from Humboldt County; the Las Vegas Sun and the Review-Journal describe him as 29 years old. The Review-Journal adds that the state’s economic plight during the Depression was on his mind.
The opposition was visible. At a public hearing on February 16 before the Assembly’s committee on public morals, 75 men and women attended and, Moody writes, no one spoke in favor. Opponents included the presidents of the Nevada Federation of Women’s Clubs, the Reno Woman Citizens’ Club and the Reno branch of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, along with representatives of the Latter-day Saints in Sparks and a Reno Methodist church. A Nevada State Journal report of the hearing says witnesses argued that the real issue was enforcement of the existing law and that a new law would amount to a surrender to those breaking it.
Supporters, including Tobin, answered that the bill would raise revenue and, above all, clean up the illegal gambling that already existed. A United Press dispatch in March 1931 reported Tobin saying that the purpose was not to make a Monte Carlo of Nevada but to provide police regulation for an existing situation and to make a profitable business bear its share of state expenses. Moody reports that the Assembly approved the bill on March 9 by a vote of 24 to 11, and that the Senate followed eight days later by 13 to 3. On March 19 Balzar signed it, together with the six-week divorce bill.
What the 1931 Law Actually Said
The new law was far less regulated than later Nevada gaming law. Faiss and Gemignani, in the UNLV Center for Gaming Research paper on Nevada’s gaming statutes, write that no state license was required; a casino owner needed only a local license from the county sheriff and, where local ordinance required, from a city or county. License fees were $25 per month for each table game and $10 per month for each slot machine, divided 25 percent to the state, 25 percent to the county and 50 percent to the city or town. The only qualification for a license was American citizenship.
Eight days after the signing, the Legislature fixed an oversight by giving local authorities the power to regulate or prohibit gaming, the same paper says. The version that passed the Assembly, as described in the United Press report, barred minors from playing or loitering in gambling establishments, barred aliens from obtaining licenses and did not legalize gambling debts. Moody adds that a so-called Frohlich amendment let cities, counties and towns charge additional license fees.
The Reno Gazette-Journal’s history of the event notes that the Legislature left regulation to cities and counties and that statewide oversight would not arrive for two more decades. The state first required a state casino license in 1945, with a tax of 1 percent of gross revenue above $3,000 a quarter, according to the Nevada Supreme Court’s 1950 opinion in Dunn v. Nevada Tax Commission.
The First Licenses and Early Reaction
The first legal gaming began almost immediately in Reno. The Nevada Resort Association’s history says the Bank Club began legal gaming on March 20, 1931, and the Review-Journal says a Reno newspaper reported crowds at the city’s largest gambling house on the eve of legal standing. A history on Gambling-History.com, citing newspapers, says that in northern Nevada the Washoe County sheriff lacked printed license forms for five work days; on Thursday, March 26, he issued the first license to the Owl Club, and by the end of that week he had issued 64.
In Las Vegas, the first city gambling license went to the owners of the Northern Club the day after the law took effect, according to the same history, and the Nevada Resort Association credits Mayme Stocker with the first Las Vegas license. The Mob Museum reports that on April 2, 1931, the Clark County Commission licensed eight businesses: the Northern Club, Las Vegas Club, Boulder Club, Red Rooster nightclub, Big Four Club, Exchange Club, Rainbow Club and Meadows Casino. It adds that the first city ordinance required glass doors of gambling establishments facing streets or alleys to be opaque or curtained.
Newspapers reacted in different ways. Moody reports that the Elko Free Press and Ely Daily Times praised the law, the Tonopah Times-Bonanza and Las Vegas Age took a wait-and-see attitude, and the Reno Evening Gazette and Carson City Daily Appeal criticized it. The Las Vegas Evening Review-Journal gave the signing one short paragraph at the bottom of its front page, and in a March 21 editorial said that conditions would change little except that some things would be done openly that had been done in secret.
Aftermath and Legacy
The early results were modest. The Gambling-History.com account cites the Reno Evening Gazette of March 23, 1931 as reporting no wild rush to gambling resorts, and the Mob Museum says the Great Depression delayed the transformation of Las Vegas from railroad town to resort city. Banks that survived were not lending for larger casinos, and gambling was still considered a sin across much of the country. The Mob Museum dates the larger growth boom to 1941, when an Army airfield and other developments arrived.
The law’s backers also had their own account of the result. Moody writes that George Wingfield, Nevada’s leading financier, told his bankers that he and his allies had received everything they wanted from the Legislature, while opponents such as Frank Williams began planning to repeal the act. Moody concludes from primary sources that the law passed because certain business interests wanted it, because influential financial and political circles supported it and because Depression conditions allowed supporters to overcome opposition.
Hoover Dam, the other great event of that month, shaped Las Vegas as well. The Nevada Resort Association lists the start of dam construction in 1931. A Las Vegas Sun retrospective quotes historian Michael Green calling March 1931 the key turning point in Nevada history, and Nevada State Museum curator Michael Wright saying that the dam, not legalized gambling, was the major development at the time. This article stops at the historical record and draws no conclusions about gambling regulation today.
Disputes, Legends and the Other Side
Several points remain open. First, legalized or restored: the UNLV News Center says AB 98 did not legalize gambling but brought back wide-open gambling, while the Reno Gazette-Journal’s 2021 history says Nevada legalized gambling in 1931. The Nevada Legislature’s research history says gaming was illegal from 1913 to 1931, while Moody describes social games, licensed card rooms and pari-mutuel betting that remained legal.
Second, the Assembly vote: Moody and a United Press report give 24 to 11, but the Nevada Legislature’s research history prints the Assembly vote as 24 to 1. Third, why the law passed: Moody lists several explanations in the literature, including controlling illegal gambling and corruption, raising license revenue and helping a Depression-hit economy, and argues that none of them alone is adequate. Fourth, the first licenses: the first Las Vegas city license, the first Washoe County license on March 26 and the April 2 county licenses are different events that sources sometimes blur.
Fifth, the legend of an instant boom: a United Press correspondent wrote that investors could now feel safe putting money into high-class casinos and that Reno and Las Vegas might compete for the title of Monte Carlo of America, but the Las Vegas Evening Review-Journal predicted little change, and the Mob Museum says that prediction proved more accurate in the short run. The other side of the story is the opposition, which was moral, practical and, in some cases, about enforcement, and which Moody documents in detail.
1931 Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1869 | Nevada first legalizes commercial gambling, per UNLV News Center |
| 1909 to 1910 | Anti-gambling law passed; prohibition takes effect after October 1, 1910, per Nevada Legislature research |
| 1925 and 1927 | Bills to loosen the law fail in the Assembly (1925) and the Senate (1927) |
| February 13, 1931 | Phil Tobin introduces Assembly Bill 98 |
| February 16, 1931 | Public hearing before the Assembly committee on public morals |
| March 9, 1931 | Assembly passes the bill, 24 to 11 |
| March 17, 1931 | Senate passes the bill, 13 to 3 (eight days later, per Moody) |
| March 19, 1931 | Governor Balzar signs the gambling and six-week divorce bills |
| March 20 and 26, 1931 | Bank Club begins legal gaming in Reno; Washoe sheriff issues first license, to the Owl Club, on March 26 |
| April 2, 1931 | Clark County Commission licenses eight Las Vegas-area businesses |
| 1945 | Nevada requires a state casino license |
Related Stories
To see how Nevada’s betting business developed after 1931, read how Nevada’s sportsbooks moved into casinos. For the resort that came to symbolize the later boom, see the opening of the Flamingo in 1946. Among the table games the 1931 law made legal was twenty-one, whose story is told in the history of blackjack.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources & References
- E. H. Leif, United Press — Nevada sets record for liberality (March 20, 1931)
- Eric N. Moody, Nevada Historical Society Quarterly — Nevada’s Legalization of Casino Gambling in 1931: Purely a Business Proposition (Summer 1994)
- Nevada Legislative Counsel Bureau, Research Division — History of Gaming in Nevada
- Robert D. Faiss and Gregory R. Gemignani, UNLV Center for Gaming Research — Nevada Gaming Statutes: Their Evolution and History (2011)
- UNLV News Center — My Nevada 5: The Days That Changed the Gaming World (2014)
- Brett McGinness, Reno Gazette-Journal — March 19, 1931: Nevada re-legalizes gambling (2025)
- Reno Gazette-Journal archives — March 19, 1931: Nevada legalizes gambling, loosens divorce restrictions (2021)
- Ed Vogel, Las Vegas Review-Journal — Gambling, quickie divorces rescued Nevada’s economy (2014)
- Gambling-History.com — Yes To Open Gambling: No Big Deal
- Jackie Apoyan, The Mob Museum — Nevada marks 90th anniversary of legal gambling (2021)
- Nevada Resort Association — History of Gaming in Nevada: the 1930s
- Las Vegas Sun — Bill transformed city (2008)
- Las Vegas Sun — Nevada’s 20th century economy a tale of water, mining, casinos (2000)
- Dunn v. Nevada Tax Commission, 216 P.2d 985 (Nev. 1950)
