Blog Posts

America’s Great Gamble: NHPRC Grant Project Work Underway

These three collections provide significant evidence of the rapid expansion of casinos, Native American gaming, and legalized gambling in the United States between 1970 and 2010. We're three months into the project and so far we’ve sorted through thousands of files, reports, analyses, statistics, and photographs found within the boxes and are working toward making them more accessible to researchers. [Read more]

Native American Comics from the Katherine A. Spilde Papers

The comics are illustrated in a typical comic book style and are both a form of entertainment and an educational tool. While the graphics of the comic book style keep the content approachable, the issues addressed within are serious problems that Native Americans have faced in the past and face in the present. [Read more]

"The Future is Here" Early tech adopters in gaming seen through the Christiansen Papers

The widespread use of computers and the internet made an indelible mark on the world of gaming, as it did on numerous other aspects of our lives. The Eugene Martin Christiansen Papers held in UNLV Libraries Special Collections document how gaming companies, gamblers, race tracks, and casinos began looking into the forerunners of internet gaming as early as the 1970s and had been using networked computers as a resource decades before most people were online. [Read more]

Ready for Researchers! Katherine A. Spilde Papers on Native American Gaming

In the 1990s and early 2000s Native American nations across the United States readily embraced gaming as a new opportunity for economic growth. The Katherine A. Spilde Papers on Native American Gaming include materials collected by anthropologist Katherine Spilde about Native American gaming and the greater gaming industry. [Read more]

A Note on Sovereignty

As a Special Collections summer intern turned part-time employee, I have had the opportunity to see the Katherine A. Spilde Papers on Native American Gaming sorted and organized, and watch its finding aid grow from 32 pages to an astounding 100+ page document contextualizing its many regional, professional, and subject files. I am a UNLV History graduate student interested in tribal sovereignty and its contested history by both federal and state governments, but specifically its use by tribal nations to regain lost lands and revitalize culture. A small discovery of some handwritten notes in the Spilde Papers has had large implications for my own research on the transnational relationship of tribal sovereignty. [Read more]

Christiansen Reports on Gaming Facilities Contain Deep Insights on Economic Activity

Feasibility studies can help answer these kinds of questions, and Eugene Martin Christiansen, who has worked as a gaming consultant in the gaming industry since the late 1970s, has written, commissioned, and collected more than 550 different kinds of studies that look at gaming in the United States. Most of these studies were conducted for city governments and private ventures and have never been published, so they will be available to gaming researchers for the first time through this collection. [Read more]

Eugene Martin Christiansen Papers are Ready for Researchers

The Eugene Martin Christiansen Papers (MS-00561) are now fully described online and are open to researchers, who will find a wealth of information related to the legalization of gambling in the United States and around the world. Kim Manh, a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Houston, has already been using the collection. He says, “This is a great collection with multiple research applications on gaming policy. I spent two days sifting through boxes of reports and barely scratched the surface of what is available. I look forward to spending many more days analyzing the information." [Read more]

Royer Collection on Gaming ~ Ready for Researchers!

As the gaming industry expanded dramatically in the 1970s and 1980s, Gary Royer provided his casino managing, auditing, and accounting expertise to hundreds of corporations, casinos, and regulatory agencies in the United States. As a consultant and auditing agent, Royer created extensive research files that researchers can now peruse to gain insight about the expansion of gaming in the US in the last fifty years. [Read more]

Harrah’s ~ First in Casino Industry to Combat Problem Gambling

The Harrah’s Entertainment Corporate Archives (MS-00460) contains the promotional and corporate files of Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. and its predecessors, as well as Bill Harrah’s personal papers and card game collection. The archives documents the development of the Harrah’s hotel and casino empire, especially from 1940 to 2000. The Harrah’s brand is known in the casino industry for being the first to make efforts to combat problem gaming. [Read more]

Harrah’s Entertainment Corporate Archives ~ Ready for Researchers!

The Harrah’s brand began in 1946 with Bill Harrah when he opened a bingo parlor in Reno, Nevada. Ever since the opening of Harrah’s Reno Club, the brand has contributed to and often led trends in casino and gaming marketing and corporate strategies. For example, Harrah’s established a lucrative busing program in the 1950s, created a linked customer loyalty program in the late 1990s, and partnered with Native American nations just after the passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1989. [Read more]

Special Collections & Archives Completes Work on NHPRC Grant “America’s Great Gamble”

Special Collections and Archives (SCA) project staff recently completed work on the National Historical Publications & Records Commission (NHPRC) grant-funded project, “America’s Great Gamble: A Project to Promote the Discovery of Sources About the Expansion of Legalized Gambling Across the United States.” The $129,600 grant allowed SCA to hire two full-time project archivists, and two student assistants who were able to process and describe four of our most significant modern gaming collections. These collections are now fully accessible to researchers and will provide valuable insight into the gaming industry of the twentieth century. [Read more]