History of Gambling and Casinos
The exact origin of gambling is unknown. The Chinese recorded the first official account of the practice in 2400 B.C., and it is generally believed that gambling, in one form or another, has been present in almost every society since. From the Romans to Napoleon's France Ancient Greeks and Elizabethan England, history is rich with tales of exploits based on the games of chance. At the height of the Roman Empire, lawmakers decreed that all children were to be taught to gamble and throw dice. One Roman emperor even designed his carriage to allow dice games while enroot to his official duties. The French are credited with inventing playing cards in 1387, and in 1440 Johann Gutenberg of Germany printed the first full deck of cards.
Many present-day gambling games are incarnations of previous games. The French working class of the sixteenth century became adept at the Egyptian game of roulette, while Napoleon took interest in the card game vignette-et-un—what is now known as blackjack or twenty-one. The English developed a diversion called hazard, the forerunner of today's popular dice-throwing game of craps, and the basis for modern poker games is believed to have originated from a combination of ancient influences including Persian, Italian, and English games of chance. Further refinements to poker include betting techniques introduced by the French and the concept of bluffing developed by the British.
Coming to the New World, the first European colonists brought with them not only the will and determination to lay claim to the land, but their affinity for games of chance. Horse racing, cockfighting, and county-sponsored lotteries (similar to today's state-sponsored lotteries) fueled an appetite for betting and wagering by the country's new population. Lotteries, in fact, were so popular, they quickly generated huge revenues for fledgling county governments. Lottery money funded many civic projects, including the building of colleges and universities. Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Princeton, and Columbia all owe their existence, in part, to the gambling passion that swept the country at the time.
With the acceptance of lotteries, horse racing, and, in the South, cockfighting, gambling houses and halls soon became commonplace, especially in areas considered outposts for the colonial expansion efforts. Even George Washington and Benjamin Franklin got into the act, printing and selling playing cards. Near the start of the American Revolution, almost every household in this new land had at least one deck of playing cards. And taxing tea wasn't the only thing igniting the ire of colonists. Since playing cards were selling so well in the States, the British placed a tariff on the cards, as well as on tea, with the infamous Stamp Act of 1765, a measure that ultimately led to the Declaration of Rights, signed by nine colonies opposed to taxation without representation.
After the Revolutionary War, all manners of gambling continued to flourish, meeting little opposition from lawmakers and the public in general. During the early 1800s gambling on riverboats along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers became fashionable. From New Orleans to Cincinnati and all points in between, magnificent floating palaces graced the waters with genteel sophistication. Women strolling the outside decks would wait for their male companions inside the ship's smoky parlors, chasing dreams of fame and fortune. Most of these early steamships and paddle wheelers operated as a way for people to gamble in comfort and style. They also afforded passengers a pleasant means of transportation. In other parts of the country, especially in urban areas such as New York and Chicago, gambling halls began to see a more refined and social clientele; they were often frequented by members of the upper class who could afford to lose big. As a result gambling halls grew rapidly, changing into large, complex organizations run on business principles rather than Lady Luck. They also became major employers, positively impacting the surrounding neighborhoods. Gambling became an integral part of the atmosphere in the frontier cities of the West as well.
And so it went throughout much of the nineteenth century: rich and poor, young and old, city dwellers and homesteaders shared a common interest in gambling. The wealthy choose the sport of roulette or horse racing; the poor, three-card mote; cowboys and gold rushers, online poker. But whatever the game, the results were the same. The citizenry embraced gambling, found it exhilarating, amusing, challenging, and of course, at times frustrating, but always moral and legal. So what happened to change public opinion? What caused gambling, a pastime tightly woven into the fabric of early American society, to suddenly become illegal in most of the country?