Sharkey's Casino Gardnerville Nevada
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Milos S. “Sharkey” Begovich, the legendary owner of a landmark Gardnerville casino that bears his name, died Friday morning.
He was 76.
The exact cause of death was unknown at press time, but Sharkey was known to be battling cancer and had three operations, including a quadruple bypass, in 2001.
Sharkey's Casino, Gardnerville, Nevada. 934 likes 12 talking about this 3,442 were here. Gardnerville landmark originally named the Golden Bubble. Became Sharkey's when bought by Sharkey's. GARDNERVILLE – A northern Nevada landmark has closed its doors after 43 years in business. Sharkey's Casino in Gardnerville, which opened in 1971 under the ownership of Milos 'Sharkey' Begovich. After it's purchase by Mr. Begovich, Sharkey’s quickly gained a reputation for serving the best prime rib in Northern Nevada as well as being the locals casino. Milos “Sharkey” Begovich is as much a part of the history of the Nevada gaming as the building is.
Details about Sharkey’s funeral service were unknown late Friday.
Begovich was born Aug. 1, 1926, in Plymouth, Calif.
Sharkey’s Nugget Casino, which he sold last year to Sparks businessman Harold Holder, was famous for its collection of Western memorabilia and an endless array of kitschy collectibles.
View the menu for Sharkey's Casino and restaurants in Gardnerville, NV. See restaurant menus, reviews, hours, photos, maps and directions. Sharkey's Casino 1440 US Highway 395 N, Gardnerville, NV 89410 Carson Valley Inn 1627 US Highway 395 N, Minden, NV 89423.
For 30 years, the casino hosted a Serbian Christmas, an Eastern Orthodox tradition passed down from Sharkey’s mother who ran a boarding house in Plymouth.
When Sharkey opened the casino in 1971, he decided to continue the tradition.
“I started it (30 years ago) and it naturally started as a small thing, but it’s grown so it’s not even believable to the people who haven’t seen it,” Sharkey said in January 2001 at the last Serbian Christmas. “It just tickles me to be able to do it.”
U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., learned of Sharkey’s death during a Friday speech at the Carson Valley Inn.
“Part of Nevada died with Sharkey,” Reid said. “Even though he was a very proud individual, proud of the history, he was very unique.”
Don Bently, owner of Bently Agrowdynamics, and a former member of Carson Valley’s long-standing Sunday morning “breakfast club,” said Friday he’ll miss Sharkey very much.
Another breakfast club member, Sen. Lawrence Jacobsen said the club met weekly and “solved all the problems of the world.”
“Sometimes we got into heated arguments but in most cases, we went home laughing,” Jacobsen said.
Douglas County Commissioner Bernie Curtis, and a Sharkey’s employee said the former casino owner’s death occurred almost 30 years to the day after Curtis met him, Aug. 7, 1972.
“He’s been a pillar of the community a long, long time,” Curtis said. “He was a quiet decent man with wonderful feelings toward the community.”
Curtis said Sharkey essentially put Gardnerville on the international map.
Curtis said for years people from Maui, Hawaii, to Nanaimo, B.C. knew Gardnerville because of Sharkey’s famous prime rib dinners.
When people learn you’re from Gardnerville, Curtis said, they ask if Sharkey still serves his prime rib dinner.
Longtime Carson Valley resident Bill Tomerlin, said he’ll remember Sharkey as a great storyteller.
“He always had news or he would talk about the old days in business,” Tomerlin said. “He was a very interesting character. I am very sorry to hear he died.”
Tomerlin’s wife, Marsha, said she knew Sharkey for 30 years and saw Sharkey him for the final time about two months ago.
“I knew he was going to be called to the big casino in the sky very soon,” she said. “I was surprised how long he held on to life. It was a credit to the man’s stamina.”
Tomerlin also said Sharkey’s daughter, Mashelle Begovich, deserves credit for caring for her father.
“She is an angel from heaven,” she said. “She’s certainly earned her wings this year.”
Foothill Road resident Kenneth Hellwinkel, 74, used to bid on auctioned animals for Sharkey at area livestock shows.
“Sharkey was one who would help out people,” he said. “He contributed to organizations, and helped out people all the time. He was always generous that way.”
Sharkey was not only a legend in Carson Valley, but seemingly much of the entertainment world knew of the Gardnerville casino and its witty owner, as well.
The casino’s walls were adorned with signed photographs of numerous celebrities, including Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and rodeo legend Casey Tibbs.
“People came to him, you can’t explain it,” said Mashelle Begovich earlier this year. For many of those living legends of country music, it was impossible to come by Lake Tahoe or visit Reno without “seeing the Shark.”
“Every day was an adventure, you never knew who was coming in,” said former long-time employee Elaine Agnason during a January interview.
Hellwinkel also told an anecdote about Sharkey’s relationship with pop singer “Jewel.”
Six months ago, Hellwinkel said Jewel visited Sharkey’s to see Sharkey’s saddle collection.
“Sharkey knew her. He had people like that come from all over to see him,” Hellwinkel said.
Holder, the man who bought Sharkey’s Casino in 2001 and took over operations New Year’s Day this year, said the deal was done with a handshake.
“We became very good friends,” Holder said. “I think he will be sorely missed because he’s certainly one of the legends not only in Nevada, but in gaming.”
“Every association I had with him and in every conversation, he was the ultimate gentleman,” Holder said.
“I’m very saddened by it. He fought hard with a number of medical problems. He was a real fighter,” Holder said. “A lesser man would have given up a long time ago, but not Sharkey.”
A memorial is planned at Sharkey’s Casino for next week. The date and time were uncertain as of Friday.
“I think we’ve lost a real friend,” Jacobsen said. “He was a first-class citizen. I don’t think he knew the word ‘no.'”
Sharkey bought the Golden Bubble in 1972. It’s been Sharkey’s ever since.
Holder said the casino will retain the name of its longtime, legendary owner.
Sharkey formerly operated casinos in Jackson, Calif., in the 1950s before moving to Lake Tahoe and beginning a long association with casino owner Bill Harrah.
Mashelle Begovich said earlier this year her father is not just the “king of garage sales.”
Seemingly every antique dealer in the United States would call Sharkey if there was something Sharkey would want. Mashelle said the answer was invariably “yes.”
The old saying, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure, was virtually a mantra to her father, Begovich said.
An auction of the memorabilia in February netted about $2.4 million.
In an interview earlier this year, Sharkey gave his philosophy about life.
“Life is about people,” Sharkey said. “You meet some interesting ones.”
After Friday, the world is now minus one of its “interesting ones.”
n Staff Writer Scott Murphy can be reached via e-mail at murph@swiftnews.com
Sierra Lutheran High School, FCA deliver trees for troops
Carson area casinos have been closed for over 70 days but operators say they haven’t been idly waiting for permission to reopen.
Customers can expect pretty dramatic changes as they return to their favorite restaurants, bars and gaming floors.
Those include numerous signs, including on the floors to control who goes where and how close they come to each other, plexiglass shields and sanitizer stations.
The Carson Nugget, Casino Fandango, the Max, Carson Valley Inn, Bodines, Slotworld and Sharkey’s in Minden-Gardnerville are all planning to reopen most if not all of their operations on Thursday, June 4, the first day casinos are allowed to resume operation.
Most plan to open at 6 a.m. that day. Sharkey’s and Bodines will wait until 7 a.m.
All have been getting their facilities ready in anticipation of reopening, an effort that required different levels of changes to the layout of slots, table games, restaurants and bars.
It also gave all a chance to take care of deferred maintenance and do some serious deep cleaning of everything.
The other major task, as Fandango manager Court Cardinal put it, is “we’ve got to get our furloughed employees unfurloughed.”
That process, required training staff in the new rules imposed by gaming regulators including new cleaning processes, sanitization and social distancing, according to Edye Kaplan of the Max Casino.
All the casino officials say employees will all wear masks and practice frequent sanitization. And all will provide masks for customers who want them.
Probably the most dramatic changes will be at the Carson Nugget that CEO Dean DiLullo says has undergone a complete remodel since the governor ordered casinos closed to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
“We spent a ton of money to modernize the Carson Nugget during the lockdown,” he said.
That includes painting, a completely new slot machine system, new sports bar near the entrance, a new Winner’s Club and deep cleaning of kitchens and everything else in the building. They also took the opportunity to repair and re-stripe all the surrounding parking lots.
Alatte Café will be open daily as will Angelinas with the Gourmet Room open Friday and Saturday.
“If you walk into the Nugget, you would not recognize it,” he said.
The Nugget, oldest of Carson City’s major casino properties, is celebrating its 66th year with the reopening.
To kick it off, DiLullo said the Nugget is running a $66,000 Gold and Silver giveaway to celebrate that anniversary. The Nugget is also introducing the Awful Awful Express where customers get their meal within 30 minutes of ordering or it’s free.
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At Casino Fandango, one of the capital’s newer properties, Cardinal said the shut down was a perfect time to do a lot of deferred maintenance that’s hard to accomplish in a 24/7 business.
That means new kitchen floors, replacement of bar and counter tops and deep cleaning of everything among other improvements.
Because of the Fandango’s floor plan, they’ve had their premier restaurant, Duke’s Steakhouse, open for two weeks. The trick is they could give customers access to the restaurant from an outside door on Curry Street without them having to walk through the casino to get there. Regulators have never explained the ban on walking through a casino when all they have to do is unplug the slot machines.
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Cardinal said he was very pleased with the customer response to opening the steakhouse.
When they opened Duke’s, “we were packed.”
He said they will be doing non-invasive temperature screening as customers enter Fandango and there are plexiglass shields at the cage, the cashier and other places to protect customers and staff.
All restaurants will be open except the buffet.
“I’m not sure we’ll see buffets again,” he said.
Cardinal said the other service that won’t be back anytime soon is valet parking because of the same health safety concerns.
He said slot capacity will be about 50 percent but that there will be far fewer counter and bar stools.
Cardinal said they are also ready to honor the gift cards customers have been winning through their online games at the Fandango website during the shut down.
“We’ve given away thousands of dollars in instant Amazon gift cards,” he said.
He said the layout of his slot pods is such that less modifications to the floor plan were required to accommodate social distancing than other casinos.
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Joey Whitacre, marketing director for CVI, Sharkey’s, Bodines and Slot World, said the Jackpot Café in Sharkey’s has been open for a week. It too has a separate entrance. He said the restaurants at CVI, SlotWorld and Bodines will open on June 4 as will the bars in all four of their properties
At CVI, they are taking reservations now. The main hotel RV Resort and Convenience Store at CVI remain open. The motor Lodge, Whitacre said, will open when there is demand for it. They are taking reservations and convention center bookings are also being taken for groups of up to 50 people.
Beginning June 4, he said sports bets will be taken and race wagering is available at CVI and Bodines
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“We look forward to seeing you all again and ask for your patience as we all wade through the ‘adventure’ of the new way of doing things,” he said.
•••
Kaplan said the Max, which has undergone fairly recent remodeling when it was purchased from Clark Russell, has also set up hand sanitization stations throughout with health signage at each entrance and the staff has been trained in the new health procedures.
They will provide queuing for guest services, ATMs and William Hill remote betting services.
She said they will continue to reward players with point multipliers and promotional staples including Senior Day and Midnight Madness.
The Black Bear Diner, she said, is open 8-8 daily and beverage service is available in the Cabaret Lounge.
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The Wyndham Garden Hotel will open June 5.