title: Nevada's Golden Age of Gambling: The Casinos 1931-1981
author:  Al W Moe 
description: Al W. Moe is a veteran of the Nevada casino industry and has worked in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, and Reno. Much of his time has been spent playing blackjack and poker for a living and he writes blogs about his travels and this history of the state.
zlib_text: # Part 1  
  Strategy
  
  
  N. Richard WerthamerRisk and RewardThe Science of Casino
  Blackjack10.1007/978-1-4419-0253-5_1(C) Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
  2009
  
  # 1. The Game
  
  N. Richard Werthamer1
  
  (1)
  
  University of New York, 43 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011, USA
  
  N. Richard Werthamer
  
  Email: [rwerthamer@nyc.rr.com](mailto:rwerthamer@nyc.rr.com)
  
  Abstract
  
  Casino gambling has been booming steadily for decades throughout the world. In
  the USA, from a time before the 1930s when casinos were illegal everywhere,
  they have grown in number and in popularity. Legalized initially in Nevada,
  they took off after World War II, particularly in Las Vegas and Reno, then
  around Lake Tahoe. Regulated casinos later mushroomed in Puerto Rico and,
  beginning in the 1970s, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Casinos then sprang up
  on river boats in parts of the Midwest and South. More recently, American
  Indian tribes have been using their distinctive legal status to develop
  casinos on their reservation