Palace Club – Reno -$5 – Vintage Casino Chip – Obsolete, rare, will rise in value.
The Palace Club was one of Reno’s most historic casinos. Opened 1934 – Closed 1979
It actually operated from 1888 (without gambling)
The Palace Club, located at 46 Commercial Row in Reno, Nevada, was acquired by Giovanni “John” Petricciani in 1927. He opened the Palace Club in 1931 as a gaming establishment with a number of table games after the State of Nevada legalized gambling. Over the years, a number of individuals leased the property. In 1964, the Petricciani family, including brothers Silvio and John, Jr. and their two sisters, Clorinda and Marietta, took over the casino. The family ran the casino until September 1979 when they sold it to Harrah’s Hotel-Casino. The Palace Club never reopened and was torn down soon after.
In April 1936, the Palace Club began operating Racehorse Keno, today known simply as Keno, which, according to historian Dwayne Kling, played an important role in Reno’s gaming history. From the 1940s through the early 1980s, Keno was one of the largest revenue producers for many casinos and an important tax contributor to the State of Nevada. The Palace Club is noted for bringing keno to a place of prominence in Reno and for refining and polishing the game. Petricciani and another man, Peter Merialdo, worked to convince Nevada’s governor that racehorse keno was a “banking game” played with a mechanical device, and therefore not illegal like Chinese Lottery, the game on which keno is based.
