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| Sharkey's Casino, Gardnerville, Nevada | ||||||||||||||||
| For years, Sharkey's Casino in Gardnerville served as a popular gathering place for locals and non-locals alike. The casino was a throwback compared to modern casinos, with old slot machines, all kinds of old memorabilia, and heaping plates of food at great prices. Up until a few years ago, the restaurant didn't even accept credit cards for payment. It wasn't uncommon to see Sharkey hanging around the casino holding a colorful and lively conversation with some regulars, which just added to the atmosphere of the place. Sharkey ran a real straight operation and called things how he saw them; when he got into a dispute with the local Budweiser distributor, he stopped serving it and posted "I HAVE NO BUD FOR YOU" out on the billboard out front. The casino and restaurant were decorated with various things, such as boxing accessories (Sharkey was a boxer prior to purchasing the casino), horse saddles, large pictures of various things, and all kinds of old gaming memoribilia. Especially cool were the restaurant tables which were hollowed out under the eating area and covered over with a transparent sheet of plastic and the hollow area contained various things, with each table having a theme. Some tables had old gaming chips and other old gaming stuff, others had maps and old advertisements for landmarks and what not, etc. An annual tradition was to hold a Serbian Christmas Feast, which was free to all who attended, early in the year each year, I believe in January. It was their way of giving back to the community. In 2001, Sharkey said when announcing the date of the Serbian Feast that folks who want to come out and enjoy it better come this year, because chances are there won't be one next year. Soon after, Sharkey's intentions to sell the casino became widely known. Later in 2001, it was announced the casino would be sold to Holder Holding Group. Holder is a fast growing company that enjoys operating casinos in rural towns. This seemed to me to be a good fit for the property. The sale finally closed right around the beginning of 2002. Little did I know, big changes were about to come. It was announced within a couple months that Sharkey's entire collection of memoribilia would be sold. The exterior of the casino was upgraded to new colors and a more modern look. The area that once housed video games (maybe 1/4 of the floorspace for the casino area), was replaced to house more slot machines. New carpeting and better ventalation were installed, and very little of the memoribilia from the Sharkey's days remained. Some of the old tables remained in the restaurant, but some of those were sold at the auction as well. The wooden walls in the restaurant, once totally covered with pictures and interesting signs (multiple with my favorite message: "BEWARE OF TRAINS"), are now pretty much bare, with just a few photos. These wooden walls do look pretty good bare, but the restaurant is no longer as interesting as it once was. But that can be said for the whole facility. While the gaming area is much improved with better lighting and new machines, and the property overall is cleaner and the cloud of smoke that once existed inside is gone, it seems much more like a standard casino now than it did before. Budweiser Beer has returned. And by making Sharkey's like a standard casino, it has lost much, but not all, of the personality it once had. | ||||||||||||||||
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| Sharkey's West Side 12/2001 West Side of Building along a side road directly across the road from their parking lot. Generally the most used entrance to the building. Note the billboard message due to a dispute between Sharkey and the local Budweiser Distributor. |
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| South Front (along Hwy. 395) 12/2001 Building along Hwy. 395. The building looks different now |
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| South Side Sign 12/2001. Same sign still in place as of mid-2/2002, although the rest of the building has been painted and signs fixed up. |
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| Page of current photos of Sharkeys Property | ||||||||||||||||