Fuller, Harvey

Harvey J. Fuller (1919-2004) was raised in Southern California, attending college before joining the army air corp during World War II. After the war, he joined the Los Angeles police department, serving from 1946 until 1977. An inveterate collector, Fuller took up collecting gaming tokens after seeing a display at Harvey's Resort Hotel in the late 1960s.

In the process of collecting tokens, he developed a deep interest in the backgrounds of the casinos that produced them and by 1970 he had changed from just collecting tokens to uncovering information on every Nevada club and casino that featured live gambling. In his pursuit of his research, Fuller and his wife spent every summer in Nevada, based in Las Vegas and traveling across the state visiting casinos and clubs in every town they passed.

Hired by Harvey's Resort Hotel curator of collections Howard Herz in the 1970s to complete his research, Fuller sought out both official and unofficial records and interviewed owners, patrons, and neighboring businesses for information. Initially writing his notes on the backs of keno slips, he eventually moved to full-size sheets of paper for storage and consistency.

In 1991, Howard Herz published Harvey J. Fuller's Index of Nevada Gambling Establishments. To date, this is the only published research based on Fuller's extensive notes of over 2400 establishments. Fuller continued to collect and research gambling chips and tokens until his death in 2004.

Source:

Herz, Howard W., "Harvey J. Fuller, 1919-2004," last accessed May 15 2018, http://www.ccgtcc-ccn.com/Harvey%20Fuller.pdf