McAfee didn’t stay long before deciding to head back to Los Angeles. In 1930, McAfee headed to Las Vegas, where the city fathers issued him a license to run a legal gambling business, which was then restricted to games such as poker in saloon-type clubs. This was during the prohibition years, and he had established himself as a “businessman” in Los Angeles, working the nightclubs where illegal alcohol was served. McAfee eventually decided he could make more money working in vice instead of working on vice, and that’s when McAfee left LAPD. I’m not sure when he decided to “go sideways,” but as a vice squad captain, he became acquainted with the owners of nightclubs, illegal gambling operations and brothels in Los Angeles. McAfee was a former police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department.
Guy McAfee’s first club in Las Vegas, the Pair-O-Dice This property was later acquired by a man named Guy McAfee. One of those businesses was the Pair-O-Dice Club that opened on Highway 91, which later became known as the Las Vegas Strip. With gambling establishments opening by 1931, many “businessmen” came to Vegas to start one.
Many people mistakenly believe that Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was the first crime figure to operate in Las Vegas, but he was not. Who was the first organized crime figure in Las Vegas? Hint: It was not Bugsy Siegel.
