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During the California Gold Rush of 1849 gambling houses sprouted up all over
northern
California, offering a wide array of not only gaming tables, but also
musicians and pretty women to entertain the gamblers as they played.
It was at this time that dance halls began to appear and spread throughout
later settlements. While these
saloons usually offered games of chance, their chief attraction was
dancing. The customer generally paid 75˘ to $1.00 for a ticket to
dance, with the proceeds being split between the dance hall girl and the
saloon owner. After the dance, the girl would steer the
gentleman to the bar, where she would make an additional commission from
the sale of a drink.
A popular girl would average 50 dances a
night, sometimes making more a night than a working man could make in a
month. Dance hall girls made enough money that it was very rare for
them to double as a prostitute, in fact many former “soiled
doves” found they could make more money as a dance hall girl.
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A
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As the
Gold Rush gained momentum, San Francisco replaced New Orleans as the center
for gambling in the United States. Over one hundred thriving
saloons and brothels met the
sailors and fortune-seeking travelers as they disembarked at the San
Francisco harbor and stumbled into the infamous Barbary Coast
Waterfront District.
Faro
was by far the most popular and prolific game played in
Old West
saloons, followed by Brag,
Three-card-monte, and dice games such as High-low, Chuck-a-luck, and
Grand hazard. It was also about this time that gambling began
invite more diversity including Hispanics, blacks, Chinese and women
in the games. Three of the more famous women gamblers of this
time were
Calamity Jane, Poker Alice, and Madame Mustache.
Before long,
many of the
Old West mining camps such as
Deadwood,
Leadville,
and
Tombstone became as well
known for gunfights over card games than they did for their wealth of
gold and silver ore. Professional gamblers such as
Doc
Holliday and
Wild Bill
Hickok learned early to hone their six-shooter skills at
the same pace as their gambling abilities. Taking swift action
upon the green cloth became part of the gamblers’ code – shoot first
and ask questions later.
One such
occasion that clearly showed the quick and violent code was when
Doc Holliday was
dealing
Faro to a
local bully named Ed Bailey in Fort Griffin,
Texas.
Bailey was unimpressed with
Doc's reputation and in an attempt to irritate him; he kept
picking up the discards and looking at them. Peeking at the
discards was strictly prohibited by the rules of Western
Poker, a
violation that could force the player to forfeit the pot.
Though
Holliday warned Bailey twice, the bully ignored him and picked up
the discards again. This time,
Doc raked in the pot without
showing his hand, nor saying a word. Bailey immediately brought
out his pistol from under the table, but before the man could pull the
trigger,
Doc's lethal knife slashed the man across the stomach. With
blood spilled everywhere, Bailey lay sprawled out dead across the
table.
Inevitably there were liquored up miners and cowboys
who would shoot up the
saloons and sometimes the
poker
winner when they were angered by their losses. Even
Wild Bill Hickok, who
is mostly known for his heroics and prowess with a six-shooter, took
advantage of those abilities when faced with a loss in
Deadwood,
South
Dakota. Shortly before midnight after a night of drinking
and gambling,
Hickok was playing a
two-handed game with a man named McDonald when the stakes began to
increase with every card dealt.
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When the hand was complete and the middle of the table
piled high with money, McDonald showed his hand, displaying three jacks. To this,
Hickok responded, “I have
a full house - aces over sixes," then threw his hand face down upon the
table. However, when McDonald picked up
Hickok's hand, he
exclaimed, “I see only two aces and one six.” Wasting no time,
Wild Bill drew his
six-shooter with his right hand and replied, “Here’s my other six.” Then he flashed a bowie knife with his left hand, stating, "And here's my
one spot." McDonald immediately back down saying coolly, “That hand
is good. Take the pot.”
By the end of the
19th century, gambling had spread like wildfire through the
many mining camps, multiplying as the gold and silver hunters spread
across the
West, searching for new strikes.
It was about this time that both states and cities started to take
advantage of these growing ventures by taxing gambling dens and raising
money for their communities.
It was also during the
late 1800s that many towns and states across the western frontier began to
enact new laws against gambling. Attempting to gain new levels of
respectability, the laws primarily targeted the “professional gambler”
more than gaming in general. Some types of gambling were made illegal,
while limits were established on others. Initially, anti-gaming laws
were weak and had little real effect on gambling, as they were difficult
to enforce, establishments simply introduced new variants, and penalties
were light.
However, the laws
were gradually strengthened and ironically,
Nevada was
one of the first states in the
West to totally make gambling
illegal in 1909. Other states soon followed suit and true to the
worst fears of the Puritans, gangsters combined liquor and gambling in the
cities of New York, Cleveland and
Chicago
during the 1920s.
By the time
construction on the Hoover Dam was underway in 1931,
Nevada relaxed its gambling laws and casinos
once more began to flourish. By 1939 there were six casinos and
sixteen
saloons in
Las Vegas.
As automobile traffic increased and people began to travel more for
leisure, Las
Vegas began to boom into the gambling Mecca it is today.
Over the years,
poker has
evolved through legitimate casinos and backroom games to its many present
variations. Over the last decade several states have reintroduced
gambling in limited formats and the fastest growing gambling opportunity
today doesn’t even require you to leave your home, as you log onto your
computer to tempt the fates. Carefully regulated by gaming laws,
poker is now
the most popular card game in the world.
Kathy Weiser/Legends
of America, © January, 2005
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