Las Vegas lost a true pioneer when Claudine Williams passed away at the age of 88 in May. Williams started in the gambling business in Bossier Parish, Louisiana when she was only 15 years old, and bridged the gap between the old and new worlds of gambling as few others did.

When Williams broke in to gambling, the business was illegal everywhere in the United States except Nevada. This didn’t stop a string of entrepreneurs from running illicit casinos, however, and Williams, like many others, cut her teeth dealing cards in a room that was neither licensed nor regulated. Yet she learned what made and didn’t make a successful and profitable gambling joint.

Claudine moved to Las Vegas with her husband Shelby in 1965; they bought the Silver Slipper casino on the Strip and ran it successfully before selling it to billionaire Howard Hughes. 

Not content to sit on the sidelines, Shelby and Claudine instead opened the Holiday Casino, a riverboat-shaped building located in front of a Holiday Inn between the Flamingo and the Sands. The Williamses aimed their casino squarely at the middle market, an approach that would prove successful for not only them, but several other operators in the 1970s and 1980s.

After Shelby passed away in 1977, Claudine became the Holiday’s president and general manager. Though she had enjoyed significant decision-making power since the property’s opening, this made her leadership position both official and undisputed. She was the first woman to helm a casino in the history of the Las Vegas Strip.

Two years later, Claudine sold 40 percent of the Holiday to Holiday Inns, which was in the process of also purchasing Bill Harrah’s Reno and Lake Tahoe casinos. In 1983, the company acquired the remaining 60 percent of the Holiday, though Claudine stayed on as chairwoman of the casino. The Holiday became Harrah’s Las Vegas in 1992, the name under which it continues to operate.

Williams enjoyed a successful career outside of gaming, too, serving on nearly 30 boards and commissions. She was a generous and active philanthropist, donating millions of dollars to several local charities, and was a particularly staunch supporter of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, where a residence hall is named in her honor.

As one of the pivotal figures in gaming’s transition from an illegal business to a legal one, Claudine Williams set an inspirational example for generations of students of gambling to come.

SOURCE: UNLV Special Collections

David G. Schwartz (www.dieiscast.com), is the Director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. He is the author of Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling.

By David Schwartz

David G. Schwartz an Atlantic City native and the director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. He is the author of Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling. His web site can be viewed at www.dieiscast.com.