Gambling in American History

Gambling (European-style) came to Massachusetts with the Pilgrims. In fact, the gambling activity must have been pervasive, because the leaders of the colony saw fit to ban all gambling in 1621 in the Plymouth settlement’s second year. Similar prohibitions were instituted by the Puritan groups that settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The political leaders knew at the beginning what they surely know now, that residents of Massachusetts love to gamble. The state lottery begun in 1972 now has sales of more than $3 billion a year, trailing only New York in sales. The state has instant games, lotto, and daily numbers games and also sells tickets in the multistate Big Game lotto. Massachusetts introduced the first instant lottery game in the United States in 1974. Massachusetts has also had a strong charitable gambling establishment, as well as pari-mutuel gambling for five dog and horse tracks.
Massachusetts has attracted much interest from casino gambling entrepreneurs.  In 1978 a major campaign was initiated to win permission to place commercial casinos in the towns of Hull and Adams. The MGM Grand casino company was a major promoter of the idea. Local residents voted in favor of having casinos; however, efforts in the legislature that lasted more than three years only resulted in rejection. The state has one Native American tribe, the Wamponoags. The tribe has a small reservation on the exclusive resort island of Martha’s Vineyard. Residents of the island have adamantly opposed the notion of having a casino near their expensive homes. The tribe agreed and made a deal to purchase land and create a new portion of their reservation near New Bedford, a declining city on the main coast. The governor negotiated the first stages of a compact for a casino. The proposed casino has confronted a series of roadblocks, however, and has not been opened as of early 2001. In the meantime casino ships began to operate three miles off Gloucester in the international waters of the Atlantic Ocean. <