William F. Harrah
| William F. Harrah | |
|---|---|
| Born |
William Fisk Harrah September 2, 1911 South Pasadena, California, U.S. |
| Died | June 30, 1978 (aged 66) Rochester, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Complications from aortic aneurysm and cardiac surgery |
| Resting place | Hailey Cemetery Hailey, Idaho, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of California, Los Angeles (dropped out) |
| Occupation | Founder, Harrah's Hotel and Casinos |
| Spouse(s) | Verna Harrah (1974–1978, his death) |
William Fisk Harrah (September 2, 1911 – June 30, 1978) was an American businessman and the founder of Harrah's Hotel and Casinos.
Harrah was born in South Pasadena, California, the son of an attorney and politician. From his early years, Harrah was a driven individual. When the car his father bought him was stolen and stripped he vowed to his sister that one day he would own a duplicate of every automobile the family had ever owned. Now, there is a William F. Harrah Automobile Museum in downtown Reno, Nevada.
He studied mechanical engineering at UCLA where he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity. He was forced to drop out when the Great Depression of the late 1920s hit and soon began work at various family businesses including a pool hall, a hot dog stand, shooting gallery and a bingo-style operation called the "Reno Game".
For quite some time, bingo was considered illegal in California, but games of skill which were often based on bingo were legal. The Reno or Circle Game involved rolling a ball down a board where it would register a card suit and number. If one of the 33 players seated in a circle around the board matched a four-card sequence, he or she won.
Harrah's father insisted that the Circle Game was a game of skill and not of chance and argued that it was legal. The District Attorney however, disagreed and closed the game down several times. This upset both William and his father who had difficulty in hiring players to round out the circle. Even if a hired player won, he or she was shut out of winning the pot. Eventually players grew tired of competing against the house. His father was tired of hearing his son complain that he wasn't making improvements to the interior of the building to provide more comfort for the players.
Expecting to give his twenty-year-old son a valuable lesson, John challenged him to run the operation by himself. Harrah said, "Dad, that would suit me just fine," and paid his father $500 for the business. He then headed down to the pier and fired the shills.
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