Harolds Club: Making Casino Gambling Approachable

A Carnival Background Comes to Virginia Street

Harold Smith Sr. and his brother Raymond opened the Reno club in 1935. Their father, Raymond "Pappy" Smith, brought experience in carnival and fairground gaming to the business.

Pappy understood the importance of confidence and approachability. A fair game, a visible entrance, small denominations, and personal treatment could invite customers who regarded gambling rooms as intimidating.

Stories of meals and bus fare for losing patrons express that philosophy, but should not be treated as a universal guarantee to every customer. The underlying strategy was to build return relationships rather than extract the largest possible sum from one visit.

Harolds Club or Bust

The covered-wagon campaign carried the casino name far beyond Nevada. Billboards, cartoons, humor, and Western imagery made the destination recognizable along roads in many states.

The message sold Reno as well as Harolds. A traveler could form an impression of an entertaining Western stop long before encountering a gaming table.

Advertising restrictions made indirect promotion especially useful. Rather than rely solely on an invitation to gamble, the campaign offered a place and personality. It anticipated later casino branding that sold a broader experience around similar underlying games.

A Casino That Welcomed the Curious

Harolds used low-denomination play and an open storefront presentation to make entry less forbidding. Women from the Smith family dealt early, followed by other female dealers, helping distinguish the room from male-dominated gambling imagery.

The casino expanded by absorbing neighboring space. The resulting complex accumulated themed rooms, bars, displays, and entertainment rather than following one original resort plan.

Visitors could encounter Western firearms, historical imagery, a Silver Dollar Bar, and a monumental exterior mural. Those attractions gave even a hesitant gambler something to look at and a reason to remain.

The Western presentation extended from employee clothing and room names to covered-wagon imagery and historical displays. It gave a customer a recognizable setting even before choosing a game. The mural's monumental scale made the same identity visible from outside. Inside and outside promotion therefore reinforced one another: the traveler who remembered the roadside campaign encountered related imagery on Virginia Street and again within the casino.

The Visit Was Bigger Than the Wager

Museums, promotional events, and family-oriented services helped make Harolds a broader outing. The intent was to attract couples, tourists, and curious visitors as well as experienced gamblers.

The Fun Room brought major entertainers into a relatively intimate setting. Period listings and historical accounts identify performers such as Harry James, Louis Armstrong, and Rosemary Clooney among the entertainment associated with the property.

The full experience connected the floor, food, drinks, displays, and performance. Harolds' national reputation cannot be explained by machine count alone; it offered a memorable environment wrapped around accessible gambling.

A Small Club Becomes a Large Operation

Later histories describe a peak inventory of roughly 1,525 slots and 61 table games in the 1950s and 1960s. Those figures indicate considerable growth, but are not a permanent count for every year.

The record also complicates the image of a single family running every game directly. Chips associated with Fred A. Beck document a leased gaming operation within Harolds in 1941.

Such details matter because a casino name could encompass separate operating arrangements. The Smith identity was powerful, but the business beneath it was more complex than its friendly advertising suggested.

New Owners and an Unfinished Hotel Ambition

The 1970 sale to Summa Corporation marked a major break with the Smith family's operating era. Later accounts describe changes in policies and atmosphere as new management took over.

Another ownership change came in 1988. Plans for hotel development encountered financing problems, and the casino closed on March 31, 1995. The inability to complete that expansion illustrates the pressure on an older standalone casino in a market increasingly shaped by integrated resorts.

Harrah's acquired the property in 1999 and demolished the buildings for an outdoor entertainment area. Harolds' enduring contribution was nevertheless larger than its physical footprint: it helped teach a national audience to imagine a casino visit as approachable recreation.