Anti-Gambling Crusades
March 12, 2006
It is interesting to note
that if widespread cheating existed there must have been
a lot of money to be made by a lot naïve or problem
gamblers. It is surprising how a gambling industry so
full of cheats could sustain itself. But in fact it did
not sustain itself. The history appears to be one of a
constant shift from legitimate games, to cheating, to a
legal ban or anti-gambling riot, followed later by a
repeal of the anti-gambling laws as people forget why it
was banned in the first place and so on through a
continuous cycle.
The waves of gambling:
The current rapid expansion of legalized gambling is
described as the "third wave of gambling." The first
(1800 to 1835, approximately) and second (1865 to 1900,
approximately) waves of gambling were more like a series
of cresting tides in different areas at different times.
Unlike the current wave of legalized gambling, these
older waves were often not legal and in no sense
organized or coherent. These waves are described as
follows,
Anti-gambling crusades in America:
Gambling in America experienced its greatest growth and
expansion during the half-century followed by the
Louisiana Purchase. In addition to the evolution of Faro
and Poker, introduction of Craps, Thimble-Rig and Monte,
and the Phoenix-like rise of Policy from the ashes of
Lottery, this period saw the spread of public gaming
throughout the country. It also saw the first organized
anti-gambling crusades, the rise and fall of the
picturesque sharper of the Western rivers, the citizen’s
war against the gamblers of the Mississippi, and the
development of the gambling house and its transformation
from a tolerated rarity into a political and social
menace.
Anti-gambling crusades in Nevada:
Nevada Legislature legalized casino gaming in 1931.
Nevada had legal casinos off and on until 1909, when
they became victims to the anti-gambling crusades of the
era. Casinos remained open when they were legal, then
illegal, then legal again. But if the law had not been
changed in 1931, it is doubtful that the fabulous
Flamingo would have been built in the middle of the
Nevada desert.
Many cities had
anti-gambling crusades that ended in lynching. The
lynching of gamblers in Vicksburg, for example, sent
shocked waves of professional gamblers streaming north,
west, and east, where they established "gambling
colonies" in other cities. So gambling was expanding and
contracting in an almost accordion-like manner.
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