S.S. Rex Club, Eldorado Club, Clover Club, Horseshoe Club

Chip scans courtesy of Ross Poppel

S.S. Rex TCR# ? New 1938 $5.00	S.S. Rex TCR# ? New 1938 $10.00	S.S. Rex TCR# ? New 1938 $25.00	S.S. Rex TCR# ? New 1938 $50.00
Santa Monica, CA	Santa Monica, CA	Santa Monica, CA	Santa Monica, CA

SS Rex Club: Tony Cornero, a one-time 1920s bootlegger from California and a former casino operator well known in Las Vegas, opened the S.S. Rex Club casino at Second and Fremont streets in downtown Las Vegas in 1944. Cornero, born in Italy in 1895, named the club after an ill-fated gambling ship he owned off the coast of Southern California, six years before.

Tony Cornero, also known as Tony Stralla and Admiral Cornero, was born in 1895 (or 1900, depending on the source) in a small village in Italy near the Swiss border.

Tony died on July 13, 1955 while shooting craps at the Desert Inn.


Back in 1931 in Las Vegas, Cornero and his two brothers built and ran The Meadows at Fremont Street and East Charleston considered the first casino resort to debut in the town in the weeks after the Nevada Legislature legalized gambling. After a brief success, the business ran into trouble, and Cornero and his brothers lost control of The Meadows only months after it opened.


May 1938, Cornero bought and remodeled the SS Rex for $600,000, money believed to be fronted by Bugsy Siegel and actor George Raft. He operated three gambling ships, S.S. Tango, S.S. Rex, and S.S. Lux, off the coats of California between 1934 and 1946. The Rex’s capacity was 2,000 passengers; it had a crew of 325, including world-class chefs, a full orchestra, broadcasters manning a commercial radio station, and, of course, working girls. The casino offered craps, roulette, blackjack, chuck-a-luck, poker, faro, 150 slot machines, and a 400-seat bingo parlor. The horse book received its results via short-wave radio. The games were honest, and Cornero posted a $100,000 reward for anyone who could prove that they weren't. The Rex was so successful that Cornero and his partners netted upwards of $300,000 a month.

However, the gambling ships were a bane to L.A. law enforcement. Cops often harassed the water taxis, but their hands were tied when it came to the ships themselves. Even so, Tony was arrested by order of the Los Angeles District Attorney. The DA argued that the Rex wasn’t three miles beyond an imaginary line drawn from the north to the south end of Santa Monica Bay. Cornero won on that particular battle and it was business as usual on the Rex.

Next, the California Attorney General (Earl Warren, who later served as the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court) declared the gambling ships public nuisances and shut down a number of other offshore casino operations. Plainclothes cops tried to sneak aboard the Rex with the passengers, but the bouncers recognized them and threw them off. Next, Warren dispatched a flotilla of police boats to the Rex. Someone tipped off Tony about the upcoming raid; he repelled the invasion with high-pressure hoses.

The authorities then surrounded the Rex. After a while, the patrons were allowed to leave. Otherwise, for nine days, Cornero's men held off the cops with sub-machine guns. On land, Tony’s attorneys sued Warren and the state of California, accusing them of everything from harassment to piracy.

This episode is remembered as the Battle of Santa Monica Bay.

When Cornero returned to Las Vegas in 1944, he and partners rented the casino portion of the Apache Hotel and renamed it S. S. Rex for his infamous casino ship. The S.S. Rex Club became one of the small, neon-lit casinos, such as the Monte Carlo and Pioneer Club, which helped establish Fremont Street and Las Vegas as a national tourist attraction during and after the end of World War II. The S.S. Rex Club offered craps, poker, faro and other table games, plus a racehorse keno game with a $5,000 jackpot—quite large for the time—and a race book where bettors could place wagers on horse races that took place at two tracks in Mexico and one in Cuba.


But, like his other casino ventures in Las Vegas and California, Cornero's association with the S.S. Rex Club was controversial, and short-lived. In 1945, local police investigated charges Cornero's partners carried concealed guns and cheated at gaming tables there. After a dispute with his investors, Cornero was out of the S.S. Rex in 1946, and returned to California to run another offshore gambling ship that authorities soon closed. The S.S. Rex Club changed hands and in 1947 and became the Eldorado Club.


Local casino investor Benny Binion bought the Eldorado, and the Apache Hotel, in 1951 and renamed it the Horseshoe Club. Cornero would later plan the ambitious Stardust hotel project on the Las Vegas Strip, but he died in 1955—famously, while playing craps at the Desert Inn hotel—three years before the Stardust opened.

Ship details: There were around a dozen "gambling ships" operating throughout the 1930's, but the one that stood out above the others was Tony Cornero's S.S. Rex. Cornero had been involved with several other boats, most notably the S.S. Tango (which he lost in a crap game) but the Rex was his baby.

The Rex was launched in 1887 as the Kenilworth, a grain ship. In 1903, it was re-christened the Star of Scotland and served as a floating cannery in Alaska. By 1930, the boat was used to transport people in style between Santa Catalina and Los Angeles. When Cornero came across her, she was a live bait barge in the Santa Monica bay. Fishermen in boats would come up and buy bait to continue fishing. -

Cornero bought the barge, totally remodeled it, and opened on May 5, 1938 as the S.S. Rex. Cornero's investment, rumored to be $600,000, was financed by Bugsy Siegal and George Raft. He towed his boat exactly 3.1 miles offshore, and announced by radio and newspaper advertisements that he was open for business. He offered a challenge, a $100,000 reward to anyone who could show that any game on the Rex was rigged. The boat could hold 2,000 people and had a staff of 325 daily. There was an orchestra and dance floor, great chefs working in the full size kitchen, and of course, a grand casino. There were over 100 slot machines to keep the wives and girlfriends happy, a 400 seat bingo parlor, and a horse book that got race results via short-wave radio.

It was a first class operation with good food, top name dance bands, un-watered booze and honest games. Gamblers had a choice of playing Craps, Roulette, Blackjack, Chuck-a-Luck, High Spade, Wheel of Fortune, Chinese lottery, Stud Poker and Faro. There were Tango layouts between decks and 150 "one armed bandits" lined the casino walls. The operation was a success and netted Tony $300,000 per month.

More than 2500 daily made the trip out to the Rex, and would line up at the end of Santa Monica pier to catch motor launches that took them out to the boat.

The Rex and the other gambling boats were a thorn in the side of anti-gambling forces. The local authorities could do nothing because they operated just beyond their jurisdiction. Police often harassed the water taxi service, but their efforts were struck down in court. Finally California Attorney General Earl Warren decided to take action. He armed himself with nuisance abatement warrants and went after the gambling fleet.

He had no difficulty shutting down two boats in Long Beach and the Texas off Venice, but the Rex didn't give in easily. Cornero got wind of the operation when seventeen unarmed plainclothes officers tried to sneak aboard the ship with the other customers. Bouncers spotted them easily and escorted them off the ship.

Warren rounded up a flotilla of State and Game boats, manned them with deputies and ordered them out to the Rex. Cornero was ready and repelled the invasion with high pressure hoses. The authorities laid siege for nine tense days while Cornero's men stood guard with sub-machine guns. His attorneys filed suit after suit charging Warren with everything from harassment to piracy.

Then Tony Cornero unexpectedly surrendered on August 9, 1938. The war moved to the courts. The high court finally ruled a year later that the three mile limit in the Santa Monica Bay extended from an imaginary line connecting Point Dume to Point Vicente. Tony had to pay fines and court costs. By late 1939, all boats had successfully been closed down. The Rex was used as a cargo barge by the U.S. Navy during World War II.

Offshore radio station: A commercial radio station for Santa Monica is reported to have broadcast from the S.S. Rex in 1938/39.

Location: International waters off Santa Monica, California.