Former gaming board enforcement chief Fenkell dies at age 70

Tuesday, July 27, 1999 | 11:47 a.m.

Jack Fenkell, a gambler-turned-Gaming Control Board enforcement chief who in the mid-1960s crusaded against card and slot cheats, has died. He was 70.

Fenkell, a native Nevadan and one-time Las Vegas card dealer, died at his Winnemucca home on July 15 following a lengthy illness, his family said.

In a March 27, 1967, Sun story, Fenkell expressed disdain for cheaters: "They are a cancer and they smear the reputations of the overwhelming majority of honest gamblers in Nevada. Our job is to protect the state of Nevada, the gambling public and the industry itself by weeding these people out."

In a statement issued by his family, Fenkell was said to have had a "firm but fair attitude toward enforcement of anti-cheating regulations."

"As a longtime Nevada gambler he understood the problems of casino owners and dealers but had little sympathy for those who attempted to alter the natural odds of various games," his family said.

During Fenkell's two-year tenure as control board's enforcement chief, the division compiled and maintained extensive files on convicted cheaters, which it shared with the state's casinos.

Also a dealer registration law was passed by the 1965 Nevada Legislature, giving Fenkell and his agents a key weapon with which to further combat cheats.

Born June 22, 1929, in Tonopah, to Edward Fenkell and the former Edwinna Burgon, Fenkell was a 1947 graduate of Mineral High School and a 1952 graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno.

Fenkell had lived in Winnemucca since 1976. At various times, he had other residences in Reno, Carson City, Las Vegas and Mina.

After serving in the Army as a lieutenant during the Korean War, Fenkell returned to Nevada, where he worked as a dealer and keno manager at Reno and Las Vegas casinos.

He joined the Gaming Control Board staff in April 1960 and was promoted to chief of enforcement in May 1965.

Ironically, Fenkell was fired in September 1967 after his staff failed to find evidence of cheating at the Riverside hotel-casino in Reno, which agents of the Nevada Attorney General's office shut down amid allegations of cheating.

Fenkell later served as office manager for the Nevada Employment Security Department, from which he retired in 1993.

In his spare time, Fenkell enjoyed the outdoors and was an avid sportsman.

Fenkell is survived by his wife, Jerry Ann; three daughters, Patricia Fenkell and Jackie Silveira, both of Reno, and Jacy Black of Boise, Idaho; two brothers, Larry Fenkell of Reno and Tim Fenkell of Sacramento; and four grandchildren.

Albertson Funeral Home in Winnemucca handled the arrangements.

The family said donations can be made in Fenkell's memory to the Sheldon Refuge Fund, U.S. Bank, P.O. Box 1160, Winnemucca, NV 89446. The fund is used for the enhancement of hunting and camping on the refuge.