Nevada was the only state with legal casinos in the summer of 1961 when Gov. Grant Sawyer traveled to Washington, D.C., to try to halt a federal strike force from invading every major gambling hall in Reno and Las Vegas.
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As recounted in his 1993 oral history, “Hang Tough,” which was published by the University of Nevada Oral History Program, Sawyer was told by U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy that Nevada was a “den of iniquity.”
“Bobby’s plan made no political sense,” said Sawyer, whose state-level 1959 legislation led to the establishment of Nevada’s two-tiered gaming regulatory system that is still used today.
