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When Fitzgerald and Sullivan re-opened the Nevada Club (from the former Robbins Nevada Club) in 1946, they operated about 20 table games and about 400 slot machines.

By April of 1952 the Nevada Club corporation grew by acquiring the Jacobs Building at 230 North Virginia Street, next door to the original Robbins Nevada Club.
The building which had a front footage of 17 feet and extended 140 feet back to Lincoln Alley, was annexed to the Nevada Club.

Lincoln Fitzgerald used the single-zero Roulette wheel instead of the usual double zero wheel. The single zero lowered the house advantage (sometimes called the vig, which represents the house's cut, or profit from which all overhead must be paid) from 5.26% to a meager 2.7%.

This single zero table attracted many roulette players, especially system players. The wheel stayed in use until the Nevada Club was sold to the the Las Vegas based Lincoln Management Group. The idea of offering a better chance to the customer would and still does send uninformed casino managers into fits of rage.

The Nevada Club was one of the first casinos to install a restaurant on its property. Its fine food and reasonable prices, along with its famous pies and desserts, made the Nevada Club a popular place to eat and gamble.

Business continued to grow. By 1955 the Nevada Club operated about 630 slot machines, 20 Blackjack 21 games, and four craps games.

Though the Nevada Club was smaller than Harolds Club or Harrah's, it had more slot machines, and about the same number of table games. Fitzgerald was one of the first casino operators to see the value of the slot machine.

The Nevada Club always featured Jennings slot machines, regarded as the Rolls Royce of slot machines by those knowledgeable in the industry. Fitzgerald had brought Jennings machines with him from Detroit. They were the most robust, and also the most expensive machines available. Most all the other clubs used either the Mills or Pace machines, and an occasional Buckley or other re-vamps.

In October 1955 the Nevada Club introduced the new four-reel Jennings Buckaroo slot machines. Many of them were still in use in the Nevada Club when it closed in 1997. They were advertised as the first machines with "no lemons or other blanks." A player could win $5,000 with a $1 bet.

The Nevada Club was also famous for the way it paid jackpots. Slot machines in those days prevented the machines from dropping the total amount of a full jackpot, so the casino change person hand-paid the customer with currency.

At the Nevada Club machines dropped twenty coins when a jackpot hit, and the balance of the payout, in coins, was prepackaged in a brown paper bag bearing the Nevada Club logo and handed to the winner. Naturally, with all those coins instantly available to them, many customers played their winnings right back into the machines.

The Jennings slot machines in the Nevada Club were very popular with local players. During the 1950s and 1960s the Nevada Club had as much local slot play as any casino in town.

Fitz and Danny Sullivan had been running a casino since the 1930's, and unlike many of the competition in town, had been doing it successfully. It is clear that compared to the other management teams in Reno, they had the upper hand in terms of casino experience, and it showed in the operation of the Nevada Club from the outset.

Unlike other clubs in Reno, the Nevada Club began in 1946 as a casino, not a saloon, or Bingo parlor. While Harolds Club grew its Western theme and added attractions such as the gun collection, the Nevada Club simply capitalized on the tremendous growth of the post-war boom period.

While Harrah's Club turned the corner from Bingo club, to being an upscale destination with the best amenities, the Nevada Club paid attention to costs, hold, drop, while offering good games with good percentages for the player, and investing where appropriate such as in the Nevada Club restaurant.

While the casino restaurant is commonplace today, the Nevada Club restaurant was among the first inside a casino, and provided excellent food, and was well known for such things as having fresh pastries, a signature item of Fitzgerald's.

Compared to other Reno casinos, the Nevada Club enjoyed keeping many longtime employees. Among the dealers and other casino workers, the Nevada Club was seen as a career destination. Many employees spent 20 or more years at the club.

Fitzgerald was known as "Fitz" or "Boss" to his staff and others in the industry. Especially compared to other operations, Fitz was seen as a tough, no-nonsense boss. This however was a requirement for any successfull casino operation, and avoided much of the trouble experienced in more loosely run operations where cash was known to flow outside with less than 100% honest employees.

The casino business is a tough business, and requires a tough hand to manage with success.

A dealer at the Nevada Club was not permitted to leave the club during their shift. Unlike Harolds Club which actually encouraged husband-wife employment on same shift, such familiarization was not permitted at the Nevada Club.

As in all casinos at the time, anyone suspected of violating any rules of employment, or jeopardizing the club's integrity were fired on the spot. On the other hand, Fitzgerald personally interviewed every prospective employee. The Nevada Club had a pay scale which liberally rewarded long-term employees.

Employees were forbidden to tell anyone how much they earned, but it was was well known around the downtown casinos that "Fitz was good pay."

In many respects, Fitzgerald and the Nevada Club were the direct opposite of Bill Harrah and Harrah's Club next door. Where Harrah was absent much of the time, Fitz was onsite every day, being very hands-on in every aspect of the operation.

In contrast to many other smaller clubs in Reno and certainly all over Nevada, Fitzgerald ran a clean and honest operation. Fitz knew too well how sloppy employee relations could bankrupt an operation, and worked very hard to make the Nevada Club one of the most open and honest casino operations in Nevada. Fitzgerald never had any hint of trouble in any regard with the smooth, legal, and above-board operation of his three casinos, which eventually spelled nothing but good for employees and other Reno citizens.

From 1956 until 1983, The Nevada Club and later the Nevada Lodge and Fitzgerald's Hotel and Casino were run on a daily basis by Lincoln and Meta Fitzgerald. There was no Board of Directors, partners, or Corporate Staff to help out. Time off and vacations for The Boss were short and infrequent. The dedication and work involved in such an enterprise is a true testament to the Fitzgerald's ethic.


Fitz allowed no "Heein and Sheein" and often has his security people check local bars and spots to find employees out with other employees.

If you got fired, he sent a telegram.

He fired one 21 dealer who he "heard" was practicing dealing "seconds" at home. He never hired anyone who had the reputation as a "mechanic."

Fitz trained many of the dealers in Nevada, and preferred it that way. They learned how to deal HIS WAY. Harold and Fitz originally were about the only two who did that. There were no "schools" to learn how to deal. I am sure there are still a few around Nevada who got their start with Fitz.

He never hired, as trainees, anyone who had been a cab driver or a bartender.

He payed his dealers with little brown envelopes, IN CASH.