The Cal-Neva Lodge wasn't the first casino at Lake Tahoe, but it was the first one guests from San Francisco thought of when they planned their summer jaunts to the lake. The first known hotel with a little gambling was the Tahoe City Hotel, opened in 1869. It was nicknamed the King's Castle, which is what Nate Jacobson called his casino at Incline Village 100 years later.

Bill Doyle opened the Cal-Neva Lodge in 1928 with roulette, poker and a few slot machines.


Owner Norman Bilts optioned the property to Bill Graham and James McKay the following year for $65,000. Nevada legalized gaming in 1931 and that first season saw the La-Vada-Lodge join with the Calneva as a drawing card right at the state line on Calneva Drive.

The La-Vada-Lodge had no hotel, but did offer dining and dancing.The Cal-Neva had the same dining and dancing plus a beautiful stone fireplace in the “great room” with a white “state line” running down the middle.  Gambling on the Nevada side and dancing on the California side.

Inside the Cal-Neva Lodge, an Epicurean delight awaited the diner crowd.   Stuffed wild animals adorned the walls and rocks that swept the room. An indoor stream gurgled and bubbled as it ran along polished rocks. Sizable rainbow trout glided past the hungry diners, oblivious to their fate, and a small gratuity sent the waiter after your catch of the day.

Gambling was offered at 35 slot machines and table game. Roulette was the most popular game, but players could also risk their money at 21, craps and Chuck-a-luck games.

Graham and McKay did very well with their casino, even if it was only open during the summer time. The profits even past those of their flagship property in Reno, the Bank Club.

The Fire of '37

Just as the new season started, a fire erupted on May 16, 1937.  The raging inferno destroyed the entire building. and sent plumes of smoke into the sky, blotting out the moon for towns halfway across the lake. By that time, guest cabins had been added and several were damaged. One of the ten guest cabins was also lost. Jim McKay, who had a home nearby, joined the managers and fire fighters to damp the smoldering ash and began plotting the rebuilding of the property.

Within two days, architects had drawn-up a suitable plan for rebuilding. While the lodge was insured for $35,000 McKay and Graham spent over $280,000 rebuilding. While that was a huge sum for 1937, their Bank Club in Reno was more than able to foot the bill.

With over 100 men working around the clock, the job was finished by the 1st of July. The beautiful circle bar, with some 70 feet of railing, was finished with a background of windows facing the lake.  Also to face the lake was the now twice as large dining room. The partners tried to match the newly installed bar at the Bank Club in Reno which cost almost $30,000. To this day, much of the draw of the Cal-Neva Lodge is its spectacular view of the lake.

Over the years, the Cal-Neva Lodge was a favorite for well-to-do gamblers, Hollywood-types, and even a more notorious group of guests and workers. Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd were just a few of the friends of Bill Graham.

Nelson became a good friend of Graham's, and even had a home near his in Reno. Graham and McKay cultivated a wide group of friends due to their ability to launder money. When Alvin Karpis needed to exchange the $100,000 reward money from the famous Hamm kidnapping, he brought his gang and the cash to Reno. After others brought their cash, they too found that Reno and Lake Tahoe could provide a safe haven for them. “Baby-Face” Nelson was at least one who repaid his friends.

After Graham and McKay were indicted on charges of mail fraud, they passed their holdings in the club on to Bone Remmer. He ran the club for them for 10 years. It was then purchased by Sanford Adler. According to Mob City: Reno, Adler had his nose broken and was bodily ejected from his job (and ownership) at the Flamingo casino in Las Vegas after Bugsy Siegel was killed.

The Frank Sinatra Connection

Adler did fine at the lake, eventually giving way to Wingy Gruber who sold to Frank Sinatra. Yup, that same Frank Sinatra who had a piece of the Sands in Las Vegas, and the Mob came full-circle and got a piece of both clubs. Sinatra ran the club as his own domain, bringing Hollywood friends like Eva Gardner, Joey Bishop, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dean Martin, Marilyn Monroe and many others to entertain in the 300-seat showroom or just join the fun at the lodge. The Kennedy's were also guests from time to time, Joe, Bobby and Jack.

One of Sinatra's friends was Sam Giancana, who ran the Chicago Outfit and took a large piece of the pie at the Cal-Neva. He had a special cabin at the Cal-Neva with a secret underground passageway to other cabins, where Sinatra and guests like Marilyn Monroe stayed. He also liked to sit on his cabin porch and smoke.

Eventually, the FBI got wind of Giancana's presence at the lodge and Sinatra lost his licenses at both the Cal-Neva and the Sands in Las Vegas. He sold the lodge in 1968 and it was eventually owned by Warren Nelson and his group of partners from the Cal-Neva in Reno. They built the hotel, sold off the property immediately after, and it floundered for several years before being acquired by Ron Cloud.

Cloud made very few changes before he sold the 219-room hotel casino to Charles Bluth in 2001. The resort was upgraded and redesigned primarily for weddings, and it eventually stopped offering gambling in 2010. The resort closed a year later.