More On "Bugsy" - Oops, Ben

Ben Siegel (you didn't dare call him "Bugsy" in his presence) was known as a visionary, because he saw in his own mind a different concept about what Las Vegas was supposed to mean to the tourist. But that doesn't necessarily mean it was his idea that slots should be such a dominant game, or a major revenue driver in his casino. The main games that were played, and the ones Siegel emphasized, were blackjack, baccarat, roulette, craps and poker. Slots weren't considered to be the stuff of glamour, or much in the way of a customer draw for his establishment.

Siegel installed slot machines at the Flamingo when it opened in 1947. But even then, he did so as an afterthought; they were a supplement, a novelty that was designed for one thing primarily - to "baby-sit" the wives and girlfriends of Siegel's high-roller patrons while they were in the casino playing the higher-yielding table games. Even then, the effect of slot machines was deceiving. No one realized what kind of money the "one-armed bandits" had the potential to bring in, but it became evident before long. Of course, Siegel died a rather violent death (you may have read about it) not long after his casino's opening, so he would never realize what a Slot Club could do.

But from around that point and forward, slot machines became a regular fixture in the Nevada casinos, and elsewhere as well. The "rug joints" that were opened in Hallandale, Fla. in the 1940s had them, and in fact the local sheriff, Walter Clark, looked the other way when it came to enforcing a "gray area" of the law on casinos in his county, in part because he and his brother-in-law owned a piece of the casino that manufactured the slot machines for the casinos.