Gambling in American History

Many gambling games utilize playing cards. Although games can be traced to prehistoric times, the use of cards did not become prevalent until the invention of paper in China about 2,000 years ago. It is likely that Chinese and Koreans were the first to use cardlike objects for gambling. Systematic decks or series of cards can be traced to Hindustan (northern India) in about a.d. 800. Chinese and Koreans probably had cards during the same era, and Europeans developed card games in the Middle Ages, aided especially by the development of the printing arts. Cards were present in Italy in 1279. The nature of today’s deck of cards was gradually established over the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The sailors on Columbus’s first voyage to the New World played cards on board the Pinta, Ni-a, and Santa Maria. Except for graphics, cards have not changed much since those times. The modern deck has the same fifty-two cards divided into four groups or suits of thirteen cards each. Two suits are red; in the French system they were named couer (“hearts”) in honor of the clergy and carreau (“diamonds”) in honor of the merchants. Two black suits were named swords or pique (“spades”) in honor of the nobility and trefle (“clubs”) representing the peasants. In each suit, there are cards numbered from one (an ace) to ten, and there are also three picture cards—the jack, queen, and king.
In the American colonies, there were many card players, and printers such as Benjamin Franklin were happy to supply them. The cards were so popular that when the British found they needed more revenue to support their administrative activities in the colonies, they decided to tax playing cards. Franklin quickly became a tax protester, then a tax rebel, and finally a revolutionary demanding independence for the colonies. The British would have been best advised to leave the card industry alone when they were choosing items to tax.
The wide proliferation of cards led to an ever-expanding number of games and a great variety of rules for those games. Confusion reigned supreme over gaming before Englishman Edmund Hoyle (1672–1769) began composing a series of books on the manner of playing games. In his early career, Hoyle was a barrister. He was also a gambling instructor. After the age of seventy, he wrote A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist. He also published books on the games of brag, quadrille, and piquet, along with guides on the dice game of backgammon and also chess. By the time he died at the age of ninety-seven, he was “the authority,” and whenever a dispute arose over the rules of a game, someone would begin the declaration of the solution with the words, “according to Hoyle.” In the twentieth century, several game rulebooks incorporated his other works and honored him in their titles.
By the twentieth century, there were many new games such as poker and blackjack that had not been played during Hoyle’s life. Nonetheless, he remains one of the greatest card experts of all time. <

Richard Canfield (1855–1914) rose out of poverty in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to become the leading gambling entrepreneur in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. He was the leading casino owner in New York City, and in 1902 he purchased and rebuilt the Saratoga Club House in Saratoga, New York, bringing it back to the elegance it had displayed when it was the private preserve of Jack Morrisey. As an operator, Canfield never gambled; instead, he enjoyed the finer things of life – wine, art, top fashion clothing, and carriages. He gambled in his youth, and although the activity helped him economically and gave him a social standing, it also earned him a short stay in prison as a result of operating a poker joint in Providence, Rhode Island.
Canfield was a student of many things, and when he decided that casino gambling would be a business pursuit, he decided to study gambling in its finest settings. He actually took a year to travel to Europe and examine the many elegant gambling halls of England and the continent. He was able to utilize his new knowledge when he moved the venue of his operations to New York City. New York was friendlier than Providence, as the police seemed to make their system of noninterference more regularized and reliable.
In New York, Canfield determined that the best gambling money to be made would be money spent by wealthy players, not money spent by immigrants in dives. He offered games to the upper classes, and was able to woo this clientele with his fine tastes and intellectual banter. Canfield was self-educated and extremely well read, could converse with the most renowned scholars of the day, and certainly was a welcomed host by the best business minds. He gathered partners, and they financed the most exclusive rooms in New York City for gambling. After a decade of operations, however, reformers Charles Parkhurst and Anthony Comstock pressured the city to close down Canfield’s casinos.
Rather than resist the police action of 1901 and 1902, Canfield shifted his sights to Saratoga. There he acquired a stable of the finest racehorses, and he stood above all the local casino operators by running the finest casino – the Saratoga Club House. A main feature of his house was the cuisine: the best offered in the United States. He discovered the value of loss leaders. Each summer he would lose $70,000 on food operations, much of it going for “comps” to high rollers, but he more than made up for the losses at his tables.
The Saratoga Club House remained in operation as a gambling hall par excellence for only five more years, as the reform movement reached into northern New York in 1907. This time Richard Canfield did not fight history. Rather, he retreated to a life as a Wall Street investor and a collector of fine art works.  He was a friend of James Whistler, and the famous artist did Canfield’s portrait. Canfield’s collection of Whistler and other well-known artists was often displayed in major museums. A man of distinction and fine taste, he died in 1914 in a rather mundane manner, after falling on the steps leading to the New York subway. <

The Canadian nation and its ten provinces and several territories offer a full range of gambling opportunities. Lottery games operated by the government are available in all ten provinces, Yukon Territory, and the North West Territories. (The new Nunavut Territory has not yet developed its own lottery.) Charity gaming is also pervasive. Pari-mutuel horse-race betting (on-track, intertrack, and/or offtrack) is permitted in all jurisdictions, and casino-style gaming is legal in most of the provinces and Yukon Territory. All the provinces except British Columbia have video gaming available in noncasino settings, such as bars and hotels.
The lotteries and casino gaming in Canada developed during the last three decades of the twentieth century. Initially, casinos were either temporary or small organizations operated on behalf of charities or provincial exhibitions. (One exception was the seasonal casino called Diamond Tooth Gerties in Dawson City, Yukon Territory, in 1970.) The nature of casino gaming changed when Manitoba decided to consolidate many small operations and open a permanent gaming hall in the ballroom facilities of the Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg in 1990.  Quasi-commercial casinos along the order of ones found in the United States soon were authorized in Quebec. Casino du Montreal opened in 1993, and Casino Charlevoix in 1994. Ontario licensed a casino for Windsor in 1994 and one at Niagara Falls in 1997. Casinos were opened in Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia in 1995. In all cases, the provincial governments “own” the casinos; management and operations in some cases are by regular government employees (Quebec, Saskatchewan, Manitoba) or by private companies (Ontario, Nova Scotia).
The Native Americans (First Nations) of Canada also are involved in numerous gaming facilities either as owners, operators, or beneficiaries of operations. The initial First Nation casino of considerable size is the Casino Rama facility at Orilla, Ontario.
By the middle of the 1990s, Canadian provinces gained C$4.7 billion in revenue from gambling in 1995, and charities and other operators won perhaps another billion dollars. The development of Canadian gambling into a multi-billion-dollar business, albeit mostly controlled and operated by provincial governments, followed a major change in the national law in 1969. Prior to that time, most gambling had been prohibited. The laws of Canada have incorporated the common law of England, and without positive legislation passed by the national parliament, the laws of England at the time of national confederation in 1867 remain in force. Hence, the first Canadian law on gambling is traced back to a 1338 statute passed because Edward III feared that his military was wasting valuable training time on idle pursuits, including “dice games.” All games and contests except those involving archery were banned. The prohibition on the use of dice in gambling remained in place in Canada until 1999. It was eliminated in England and Scotland in 1968.
The English laws, which generally eliminated most gaming, were enacted into the statutory law of Canada when the first Criminal Code was passed into law in 1892. For the last century and a decade, that statutory prohibition on gambling has been nibbled away at by lawmakers. First in 1900, the code was amended to permit charitable raffles with small prizes. In 1910, on-track horse-race betting was allowed. It has remained legal with the exception of a short period during World War I. A 1922 statute specifically banned the use of dice in games, a ban that had never been lifted out of the common law. Limits on various other games of chance were relaxed in 1925 for fund-raising events at agriculture fairs.
In the 1950s, a parliamentary committee studied the gambling restrictions and in 1956, issued a report recommending major changes. These, however, did not come to pass for over a decade.
Financial commitments rising out of the Montreal World’s Fair of 1967 provided legislative support for opening up more gaming opportunities for government budget makers. The fact that south of the border, the states of New Hampshire, New York, and New Jersey legalized lotteries added to the support. This support led to the passage of the Criminal Code Amendments of 1969, providing the major breakthrough for the development of a modern gambling industry in Canada. The 1969 law added a new Section 190 to the Criminal Code that allowed the provincial governments and the national government to conduct and manage a “lottery scheme.” Several provinces could also operate lotteries together. Provinces were permitted to license charitable, religious, or exhibition and fair organizations and bona fide social clubs to conduct lottery schemes. The concept of lottery schemes soon came to encompass many casino-type games. Section 190 repeated the ban on the use of dice in games, however, and also prohibited betting on single sports events. Gaming machines were allowed only if the provincial governments operated the machines.
Lotteries were quickly established in the provinces and territories. The national government also utilized a lottery to underwrite the costs of the Montreal Olympics in 1976. A national sports lottery funded the winter Olympic Games at Calgary in 1988. In 1985, the provinces rejected the competition of the federal games. In exchange for $100 million from the provincial lotteries (enough money to fund the debt from the 1988 games), the federal government agreed to a law relinquishing its authority to operate any gambling at all. Present policy on gambling is held entirely in the hands of provincial governments and in territorial legislatures. One area of gambling has developed without benefit of a clear jurisdictional framework, however. Policy on affairs regarding the First Nations is still held in the hands of federal authorities, yet gambling policy is not a matter for federal law. To date, the bands of First Nations have had to resolve their rights to have gambling operations on an ad hoc basis in consultation with provincial authorities. <

California, the nation’s most populous state, is on the verge of becoming the leading gambling jurisdiction in the Western Hemisphere. The state has several of the largest horse racing tracks. It also has one of the largest lotteries, hundreds of poker clubs, and several dozen Native American casinos.
Shortly before California became a state in 1850, gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill on the American River. The news spread quickly, and soon a “rush” of forty-niners was on the way west. Between the time gold was discovered and 1860, over 350,000 immigrants had come to the Golden State. They were miners and prospectors who had free spending habits when they made their personal discoveries—or whenever they got money in their hands. Gambling was pervasive, as San Francisco became a center for a wide variety of “sin” activities.  Gambling was also widespread in smaller cities and in the many mining camps of the state. Soon both the state and the local communities were charging fees for operating gambling halls.
The sinful nature of California did not last. Mining opportunities lessened as gold veins were depleted. But California offered many other opportunities—good agricultural lands and ports for commercial activity. Waves of nonmining people—“good” people—came to the state looking for normal business activities and also for opportunities to raise families and cultivate futures for their children. The dominant interests of the state—the mine owners and railroad interests—did not see that their roles in society were incompatible with those of the newer immigrants. The power elite responded to cries of public outrage and demands to clean up the sinful activities prevalent in the state. Actually, the first state constitution had contained a ban on lotteries, but casino gambling had been accepted by local authorities, until the citizens acted. Gamblers in San Francisco were lynched in 1856, and the legislature took notice. In 1860, all banking games were banned, but poker games could continue to be played.
The rule against banking games remained until 2000, when the final effort to win legal status for Native American casinos was successful, and the constitution was changed. The slot machine was invented in California in the 1890s, and machines operated in the open until state laws specifically made them illegal in 1911.
Wagering on horse races was legalized in 1933; however, the major distinguished form of gambling in California from the 1860s through the 1980s was the poker club. Many debates in court and in the legislature revolved around definitions of different kinds of games that were legal or not and whether certain poker clubs could be considered public nuisances. Courts ruled that the clubs could exist only under the authority of local ordinances. The 230 poker and card clubs of California produce revenues approaching $1 billion a year. The private clubs are not allowed to participate as players in the game, nor are they allowed to take a percentage of the money bet by the players. The card club furnishes a dealer and then charges players a participation fee per hand or a fee based upon how long the player sits at the table—the fee is collected each half-hour. There are over 2,000 tables in the clubs of the state. The largest clubs are in southern California. These include the Commerce Club (in Commerce) with 233 tables and the Bicycle Club (in Bell Gardens) with 180 tables. The clubs were, for the most part, unregulated until 1999, when the legislature activated a state gambling control commission. The commission makes decisions on new licenses and rules for the games that may be played and also makes recommendations regarding taxes.
California also permits charity gambling. There are many bingo halls in the state. The charity gambling and the poker clubs opened the door for Native American casino gambling in the state in the 1980s, precipitating an ongoing controversy that by the year 2000 had been mostly resolved.
There have been continuing efforts to legalize casinos in California since the mid-twentieth century. In 1950, the voters decisively defeated a plan for creating a state agency that could have authorized all forms of gambling, including casinos. In 1975, a legislative bill for casino gambling in Placer and El Dorado Counties, near Lake Tahoe, died in committee. A 1977 plan called for three casinos along highways leading into the state of Nevada. A 1979 proposal to have casinos in Jackson failed, as did a 1982 plan to put casinos in the towns of Adelanto in San Bernadino County and Clear Lake in Lake County. The sponsor of the plan was arrested for holding illegal games to get funds to run his campaign.
The opposition to casinos became an element of the campaign for a state lottery in 1984. Sensing that the public was adverse to the notion of having casinos and that they might fear that a successful lottery vote could strengthen efforts to get casinos, the lottery sponsors put a provision into their constitutional initiative that stated casinos would be banned in California. The measure passed, and this meant the constitution would have to be amended if there were to be any casino gambling—similar to that in Nevada.
The ban did not stop the Native American quest for casinos, but it certainly “muddied the waters.” Several tribes set up bingo and poker games, but they did not follow the local rules governing them.  This precipitated a series of cases leading to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Cabazon v. California, which said that the Native Americans could run games according to their own rules as long as the games did not violate the general public policy of the state. Hence, since poker and bingo were allowed, they did not violate the general public policy of the state. The case, in turn, caused the U.S. Congress to pass the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988.
The Native Americans of California are located on over 100 small reservations, called rancherias. The Native Americans wanted casino games, but the governor would not make an agreement with them to allow the games. Nonetheless, the Native Americans installed a variety of slot machines, and they also played nonbanking versions of Nevada casino games. Legal squabbles seemed endless, until the tribes sponsored a legislative initiative to mandate that the state give them an agreement to have some casino games. The 1998 campaign on Proposition 5 turned out to be the most expensive initiative campaign in U.S. history, as the Native American interests invested almost $70 million in their effort. Nevada casinos that opposed the Native American casinos invested $26 million in the campaign.
The proposition passed overwhelmingly. A court challenge struck it down, however, on the basis that the 1984 amendment to the constitution said casinos were banned. The Native Americans returned to the campaign. In March 2000, they won passage of Proposition 1A, which amended the constitution to allow Native American casino gambling in California. It is predicted that as many as sixty tribes will open casinos and that their collective revenues will approach those of the casinos in Nevada after they are in full operation. Controversies will persist, however, as there are “vague” limits on the amount of gambling devices that each tribe may have. In any case, California is poised to become the leading gambling state in overall volume of gambling. <

Most forms of legalized gambling are permitted in British Columbia, Canada’s westernmost province. Pari-mutuel racing was permitted before the Canadian Penal Code was amended in 1969. Now telephone betting, offtrack betting, and intertrack betting are allowed for gamblers. At first, lottery games were conducted under the auspices of the Western Canadian Lottery Corporation, but British Columbia established its own independent lottery organization in 1985. The province has permitted bingo and raffle events for charities since 1970. Charities have been permitted to conduct casino events since 1978.

The “dice” wheel in a British Columbia casino. Dice were not allowed in Canada until 1999.

The casino events grew quickly in number and volume of activity. In 1984, the province issued regulations that governed private companies that were offering casino management services for
charities. The charities were restricted in their ability to pay staff to operate games, but the management companies could do so. Gradually a pattern emerged of having casino events all located in permanent casino facilities that were privately owned. There are now seventeen such casino buildings. Most are in Vancouver and its suburbs. The private companies are permitted to keep 40 percent of the gaming profits from a casino event of two days; the charity gets 50 percent and the government 10 percent.  The private company pays the salaries of dealers and other gaming personnel, as well as all other costs. The charity only provides personnel to watch the cage.

In British Columbia casino dice games were played by rolling balls. The editor makes his play.

Initially, the casinos could offer only table games, with roulette and blackjack being the most popular. In 1997, the casinos were allowed to install up to 300 slot machines each under a new revenue-sharing formula. Technically, the government owns all the slot machines.
Until national law removed the ban on dice games in 1999, the casinos had unique devices for sic bow, a three-dice game. The player rolled three balls into a roulette wheel that had thirty-six slots representing face-sides of the dice. Craps and sic bow are now played with actual dice.
For many years, there have been top-level discussions regarding the introduction of destination-type casino resorts. In the early 1990s, a plan to have the Mirage resorts of Las Vegas build a casino on the Vancouver waterfront was advanced by the premier of the province. Another plan called for a casino at the Whistler Ski Resort north of Vancouver. When the plans were announced publicly, there was a major outcry of protests from several citizen groups. The premier backed down, but the idea of having major casinos is still a matter of conversation in the province.
In 1997, the government, without sites being designated, again initiated a local option plan for twenty-one larger casinos. The First Nations of the province, however, were supposed to be given thirteen sites on their reserves. In the process of jockeying with persons wishing to control sites, the premier was forced to resign in 1999 when he was exposed for having taken favors from some of the applicants for site licenses. Also in 1999, slot machines were permitted in the charity casinos under local option. Additionally, a casino boat was permitted to operate off a dock in New Westminster.

Brazil is by far the largest country in Latin America, with a land mass larger than that of the forty-eight contiguous states of the United States and a population approaching 180 million. The country boasts two of the largest cities in the hemisphere: Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
Although casino gambling is currently illegal in the country, the population participates in many forms of gambling, including illegal casino-type games. The wealthy, among a population with a wide gulf between the rich and poor, support the casinos of the surrounding countries with a great share of their patronage. They also frequent the casinos of the United States.
Casino gambling throve in Brazil in the 1930s and 1940s; however, it was prohibited by presidential order in 1946. Remnants of casino-type games remain. Machine gaming of a video variety is prevalent in the country’s many bingo halls. Sports betting and football pools are also popular, as are cockfighting, horse racing, and all forms of lottery games. A private and only quasi-legal lottery called jogo do bicho (“the animal game”) is played to support the activities of the Mardi Gras celebrations in Rio de Janeiro.
Through the 1990s and up to the present, there have been efforts to legalize casinos in some form. A casino bill was narrowly defeated in the 1991 session of the national legislative body. In 1995, a special committee was set up to study gambling and casino games. The issue remains controversial. Some organizations consider casinos to be a threat to their own financial interests. There is considerable political, economic, and cultural support, however, for the reconsideration of legalizing casinos.
The anticasino lobby is led by church forces advancing moral arguments. Pro-casino legalization arguments include the globalization of casino gaming, the reduction of trade barriers, the opening of markets, and the pressures and opportunities associated with multinational, integrated market groupings, such as MERCOSUL (the Southern Cone Common Market of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay). All the other members of MERCOSUL have legalized casino gaming, and Brazilian tourists often visit their gaming facilities, such as Punta del Este, Uruguay, and Mar del Plata, Argentina.
One perpetual major proposal for casino gaming legislation would allow luxury hotel-casinos in officially designated tourism zones. A government agency, EMBRATUR (the Brazilian Institute of Tourism), would determine the gaming zones. A Federal Gaming Commission would be established to ensure the integrity of the games. <

Local casino owner John Wolfram has told me how he sat in a car way out of town, on the Boulder Highway where Flamingo Road began. He was with Sam Boyd, and Sam asked him to look at the cars and count them.  Sam told John that each of those cars was worth a dollar, or some such number. A certain number of cars would pull into a casino if it were located right there. As the story goes, Wolfram said that he was not into that kind of speculation and that he would pass on the offer to buy a piece of the action. Wolfram has been successful in his own smaller casinos; in later years, he owned the Klondike at the far south end of the Strip. Sam Boyd not only was successful, but he became a phenomenon in Las Vegas gambling. But it did not start when Sam’s Town Hotel and Casino opened at the corners of Nellis, Flamingo, and the Boulder Highway; the seeds of success were planted decades before.
Sam Boyd was an “Okie,” born in Enid in 1910. His father did well as the owner of a small town taxicab company, but he died when Sam was only nine years old. Sam’s mother was a nurse who felt that to support her family, she needed a job in a more prosperous location. Eventually, the family relocated to Long Beach, California. Not only did Long Beach have better jobs for those in the medical fields, but it also offered opportunities for other people who liked to “hustle.” And Sam Boyd as a teenager came to like hustling a lot. He worked as a barker and a carnival games operator on the Pike. The lessons he learned on how to draw people into games were lessons he would use throughout his lifetime. He came to use “fun books,” flags, balloons, parties, anything to make the player feel the game was exciting. He also learned that the operator could make a lot of money if he went after the masses—a few dollars from everyone was worth the same as many dollars from a single player. After the carnival gaming experience, Sam Boyd learned all about casino games on one of the gambling ships that worked out of southern California. He dealt each game. He also became a bingo game operator.
He married Mary Neuman in 1931, and the following year their only child, Bill, was born. Sam always emphasized to Bill that his career would be much better if he received a formal college education. Bill got an undergraduate education, and then he received a law degree. His “enhanced” career began in a law office, but soon he found that he could be helpful as the attorney for his father’s casino interests, and then he could be even more helpful as a casino executive himself. He eventually helped the Boyd organization make the transition to a corporate property with interests in many locations besides Las Vegas.
In the late 1930s, Sam Boyd spent five years in Hawaii involved with a variety of bingo establishments. In those short years he came to appreciate the Hawaiian population with its Asian heritage and love for gambling. This appreciation became the nexus of his marketing efforts when he set up operations in Las Vegas several years later.
Sam came to Las Vegas in 1941, in response to a federal crackdown on gambling in California. His first jobs were in small casinos on Fremont Street. He went on to work at the El Rancho Vegas, the first casino on the Las Vegas Strip. After a tour of duty with the army in World War II, he was employed at the Flamingo, after “Bugsy” Siegel. He also worked in northern Nevada at Lake Tahoe. His son, while a student at the University of Nevada in Reno, worked with him during summers. Sam also held positions at the Sahara and the Thunderbird. Sam Boyd loved working, and he was very diligent about saving as much of his salary as possible. In 1952, he had a chance to buy 1 percent of the Sahara. Hard work habits now became a compulsion. Sam purchased more shares when the Sahara developed the Mint downtown. He kept working and saving.  In 1962, Sam, his son, and two others purchased the casino that became the El Dorado in downtown Henderson. In 1971, he became a partner in the Union Plaza casino at the end of Fremont Street. There he was innovative, as he used women as dealers at blackjack games. His goal was to build a player base. He also brought musical plays onto the property.
Sam Boyd took his money out of the Plaza so that he could become the major investor in the California Hotel just off Fremont Street. Quickly the California Hotel became the venue for Hawaiian players. His controlling interests in the California and the property in Henderson necessitated that he drive the thirteen miles that separated the two properties each day. (This distance is significant to me, as the Boyds sponsored an official minimarathon race in which I participated, between the doors of the two hotels.) It was on one of these drives that he realized there might be a market among the many cars that were on Boulder Highway each day.
Realtor Chuck Ruthe was on the board of directors of Boyd Casinos and used his expertise to put together the land deal that allowed the construction of Sam’s Town and its opening in 1979. Many establishments had previously tried to target local gamblers for their market—most were on Fremont Street, but there was also the Showboat, at the top of Boulder Highway. The Sam Boyd touch, however, made his efforts to get the local gamblers especially lucrative. His Sam’s Town ushered in a new genre of Las Vegas casino—the locals’ casino. Without Sam’s Town showing the way, it is unlikely there would have been an Arizona Charlie’s, Santa Fe, Texas, Boulder Station, Fiesta, or Sunset Station. As the 1980s went on, however, Sam Boyd realized that the old management styles would not be totally effective if Boyd’s were to expand into a public company and go into new jurisdictions. He yielded corporate power to his son and enjoyed his final years as an elder statesman representing the days of the personal touch in Las Vegas. He was able to see his company set higher goals under Bill’s leadership. Sam Boyd died in 1992 before the company entered the Tunica, Mississippi, market with the largest hotel in the state, established a riverboat in Missouri, and made a management agreement with a large casino for the Choctaw tribe in Mississippi. <

Boulder City, Nevada, is the only community in the state of Nevada where gambling is not permitted in any form. The small city of about 15,000 residents lies twenty-five miles southeast of Las Vegas and abuts the Colorado River. Boulder City was not part of Wild West mining days of the Silver State. Rather, it was a government creation, established in 1931 as a city to house workers for the building of the Hoover Dam. The Boulder Dam Project had been authorized by an act of Congress in 1928. Almost immediately thereafter, the state of Nevada and the federal government sought to exercise their separate authority over the parcel of land selected for a new workers’ community. The federal government, even in the years right before Nevada legalized casinos in 1931, recognized the state as a rogue among the members of the union. Gambling was openly operating in Las Vegas, as were houses of prostitution, which actually were in conformity with the local law. Las Vegas was also considered to be the location where violations of the national prohibition against alcoholic beverages were most apparent.  In 1929, some thought was given to making Las Vegas the base camp for the construction workers. After Secretary of the Interior Ray Wilbur visited the “sin city,” however, he recoiled at the notion of workers living among saloons and prostitutes and being tempted to spend their salaries in casinos. Wilbur declared that a “model” community be constructed closer to the site of the construction.
Secretary Wilbur invoked the provisions of the Reclamation Act of 1902 and created a 144-square-mile enclave out of unappropriated federal lands surrounding the site of the dam. The enclave included a town site for Boulder City. The city was made a federal reservation much in the same legal form as the Native American reservations of the same era. Federal law dominated city life, and Nevada law was unenforceable. A prohibition against liquor was put firmly into place and remained in place even after the 21st amendment ended national prohibition in 1933. Prostitution was strictly forbidden, as was gambling, even though it was soon made completely legal by the Nevada legislature.
Boulder City, the first “planned community” of the twentieth century, was to be an isolated oasis of morality and “quality life,” albeit surrounded by the many diversions of Nevada society. Author Dennis McBride writes that “everything was designed and blueprinted long before the first spadeful of earth was turned at the site. The government decided how many people would live in Boulder City, and which businesses would be allowed to operate” (McBride 1981, 16–17). The city was built on desolate desert lands. It transformed the lands into a hospitable environment for workers who desperately needed quarters for themselves and their families. The same consortium of companies that was chosen to build the dam built the city. They hired an architect to lay out the streets. He did so and also designated lands for parks and golf courses. The architect incorporated desert landscaping into his plan. The need for quick construction led to modifications, however, and the golf course idea was abandoned. Also, the almost unbearable heat prompted the government to bring in a landscape gardener, aptly named Wilbur Weed, to begin a project of planting grasses, shrubbery, and trees everywhere. He selected the correct species of each after much study, and miraculously, his plantings survived to bring a measure of coolness and shade to the streets of the community. The plantings also broke up the wind and dust storms that had otherwise swept through the town as a result of all the construction activity. The autocratic city managers appointed by federal authorities did not let the landscape gardener’s work go unnoticed. They decreed that all residents would have to maintain their lawn and garden areas, and if they did not, the city would do so and deduct the cost from the residents’ wages at the dam.
The government decided that Boulder City would not be just a place for workers to live temporarily but that it would be a true community. A variety of civic institutions and organizations was sponsored, and churches were invited to join the community. By 1932, four were constructed and well attended.
Dennis McBride writes that by the end of 1932, most of Boulder’s principal buildings were finished, and her institutions established. The streets were paved, the boulevards and parks landscaped. There were no more tent neighborhoods; hundreds of houses stood in monotonous rows, each identical to the next. Plaster on the new Bureau of Reclamation Administration Building, the dormitory, and the Municipal Building was smooth and white, reflecting the powerful afternoon sun. Fords, Chevys, and other working-class cars lined the streets. New stores in the business district displayed goods behind big polished windows. Arcades with graceful plaster arches shaded the downtown sidewalks…. Where before there had been barren desert, there was now a modern American city. Wives shopped in clean, well-supplied stores and ate lunch in fine cafes; their husbands worked all week, and brought home a good paycheck.  Children went to school taught by bright innovative teachers, and played on green, front lawns and in shady parks. While families in the rest of America went hungry, the people who lived in Boulder City on the federal reservation lived quiet, insulated domestic lives. Boulder today still looks remarkably like it did fifty years ago.
A fence surrounded the city, with a gate manned by guards who would only let in workers and residents, who had to carry passes. Eventually over 5,000 workers lived in the dam-building community. The decision of Secretary Wilbur to create the enclave of “clean living” had several consequences for the development of Las Vegas as a gambling Mecca. First, by banning gambling and other “entertainment” from the vicinity of the dam, Wilbur ensured that a large number of federal employees would venture into Las Vegas and support its newly legalized casinos in the 1930s. Further, the restrictions on life in Boulder City—in terms of entrance and exit from the town—precluded a development of hotel accommodations until well into the construction schedule. Only one hotel was available during construction. Accommodations developed in Las Vegas instead. Moreover, as a private center of enterprise, Las Vegas attracted a share of the capital resources that were directed into the construction project. Las Vegas became a major transportation center for materials because enterprise was not allowed to develop in Boulder City.
When the Hoover Dam project was completed, Boulder City declined in population as workers moved away. The town persisted as a government center during the years of World War II, however, as a military force was stationed in the area to guard the dam, considered by authorities to be a target for the Japanese enemy. After the war, the city began to attract workers of the newly developing casino industry of Las Vegas. In the 1950s, the residents moved to have the city removed from federal control. In 1958, for the very first time, residents were permitted to vote for local governing officials. First a commission was elected to write a home rule charter for the city. After a charter was written, it was approved by a vote of the citizens. Then in 1960, Congress passed legislation releasing the land for private sale to the citizens whose city now came under the jurisdiction of the state of Nevada. The first charter banned both gambling and hard alcoholic beverages, probably in recognition that the charter would not become effective unless ratified in an act of Congress. The state of Nevada had banned prostitution in Clark County (the county including both Las Vegas and Boulder City), so this was no longer an issue. After the city emerged as a home rule town under Nevada law, there were several attempts to legalize both alcohol and gambling. In 1958, the city charter was amended to allow the sale of alcohol both by the bottle and by the glass. In vote after vote, however, the residents have remained firm in the position that they do not want gambling. This adamant standing does not mean that residents do not frequent casinos. The residents, now 15,000 strong, patronize two major casino complexes on their borders; one at the Railroad Pass area on the road to Las Vegas and another on a private enclave of land outside the city limits on the road to the dam and the Arizona state line.
As a resident of nearby Las Vegas, I can attest that Boulder City, the state’s only nongambling city, has maintained much of the culture that was imposed upon the city by its federal mentors during the construction of the dam. The city seeks to be a quiet community with good schools and churches, a city that enjoys the very green parks and tree-lined streets cultivated by the federal government in the 1930s. The city adopted antigrowth policies in the 1960s and 1970s and maintains a policy of limited and controlled growth. The latter policies help maintain high values of residential properties. They also maintain a buffer to the urban sprawl prevalent throughout the rest of the Las Vegas metropolitan area. A small town character prevails. Within this atmosphere there are events such as the autumn art fair that attracts both artists and art patrons from throughout the southwestern United States. The city is also a tourist center, as it is the first motel area near Hoover Dam and the Lake Mead recreational area that was created with the completion of the dam in the 1930s. Visitors to the city who stay in the local motels have access to the many entertainment venues of the Las Vegas area, while at the same time they can enjoy quiet walks through uncrowded green parks beneath trees, much as if they were in a small Midwestern city. <

The remote, landlocked, mountainous country of Bolivia is not at all distinguished for its gambling activities. The preponderance of the almost 8 million citizens are of indigenous heritage and do not live prosperous lives. The country has had a lottery, as do all of the independent countries of South America, and there is pari-mutuel racing.
Although casinos do not operate within the confines of a legal framework, a large portion of the population of the national city of La Paz has nevertheless had occasion to visit local casinos. Casino owners have been operating casinos for years on a quasi-legal basis. In 1993, the president issued an executive order declaring the facilities to be illegal. A 1994 city statute in La Paz permitted lotteries, however, and local entrepreneurs used it as a ruse for opening casinos. After a federal raid had closed down thirteen of the country’s casinos, the mayor of La Paz authorized the opening of two in the city, holding that the casino games were municipally approved lotteries. The wrangling between the city and national authorities has scared off many potential foreign investors. As a result, pressure has increased for the National Congress to take action on a casino bill that was first introduced in 1991. No action was taken before the end of the twentieth century, and matters of the casino front remain in limbo.

Blackjack is the most popular card game in casinos throughout the world. The game is an American creation in its present form, although it has origins in European games such as the French vingt-un (translated as “twenty-one”) and the game trente et quarante (or “thirty-one”) as well as the English game of pontoon. The form of twenty-one used in the United States was modified in 1912 when play at some card rooms in Indiana added an additional three-to-two payoff for winners who had a “natural twenty-one,” that is, a twenty-one count on their first two cards.
The popularity of the game was greatly enhanced by the publication of Dr. Edward O. Thorpe’s book, Beat the Dealer, in 1962 (see Annotated Bibliography). The book presented solid evidence that with proper playing techniques and structures, the odds for this game can actually change and be in the favor of the player.
Blackjack is a house-banked game in which a house dealer seeks to have cards valuing 21 or a number closer to 21 (without being over 21), but higher than the values of cards held by players. The player makes an initial bet according to the house limits. A dealer gives two cards (one at a time) to each player and also takes two cards himself or herself. The blackjack table may accommodate up to seven players, each of whom individually competes with the dealer. The object of the game is to get cards totaling 21. The cards from 2 through 10 count as their number value. The jack, queen, and king each count as 10 points. An ace may count as 1 or as 11. If a hand has a value of 22 or more it is a “bust,” a losing hand for a player, and in most cases for the dealer as well. Although there are variations, in general the two player cards are dealt face up, whereas one dealer card is dealt down and one face up. The player may ask for additional cards in hopes of getting a 21, or closer to 21 than the dealer’s hand. If an extra card makes the player’s hand go to 22 or over, however, the player immediately loses the hand, regardless of what happens to the dealer’s hand. A player who is satisfied with the hand’s value and has not “busted” indicates that he or she wants no more cards. After all players are done taking cards, the dealer exposes the facedown (or hole) card. He or she takes extra cards if that total is 16 or less but stands (that is, takes no more cards) if the value of the cards is 17 or more. In some casinos, a dealer will take more cards when he or she has a value of 17, which includes an ace that is counted as an 11. (This is called hitting a soft 17).

A gambling table before opening hours in a Santa Domingo casino.

Winners are paid at even money; if they bet $5, they win $5, a return of $10. If both the player and the dealer have hands with the same value, it is a tie, and the player’s bet is returned to him or her. A player who busts loses even if the dealer later busts in the same hand.
The situation is altered if the player or the dealer has a natural blackjack. A natural blackjack consists of an ace and a card valued at 10 (10, jack, queen, or king). If the player’s first two cards are a blackjack, he or she wins and is paid three to two; that is, a win of $7.50 plus $5, or a return of $12.50. This win is negated if the dealer also has a two-card blackjack, in which case the play is a tie. If the dealer has a blackjack, he or she beats all players who do not also have a blackjack. In the case of a dealer showing an ace or a 10-value card, the dealer looks at his other card; if it makes a blackjack, he or she reveals it and collects the bets from the losing players without giving them the opportunity to draw cards. If the dealer is showing an ace, however, he or she first offers all players a chance to make insurance bets, which are described later.
Certain special plays and bets are allowed to the players. For instance, if both of the player’s first two cards are the same, he or she may split them into two hands by making an equal bet on the second hand. Some casinos also allow resplitting. New Jersey casinos and many in other jurisdictions, Nevada excluded, allow the player to make a “surrender” play. After the player looks at the dealer’s one card and his or her own two cards, the player may forfeit the hand immediately for only half of the original bet. The player may also like the situation so much that he or she doubles the bet. After “doubling down,” the player may be given only one more card—if he or she desires more cards. Some casinos allow a player to double down if showing cards with values of 10 or 11. Other casinos allow any player to double down.
If the dealer is showing an ace, the player may make a bet called “insurance.” This is a side bet that does not affect the main bet on the value of the player’s and dealer’s hands. The player bets up to half of his or her original bet and wins a two-to-one payoff if the dealer reveals that he or she has a natural blackjack. With this side bet, the casino has an 8 percent edge over the player, as there are sixteen ten-valued cards (which can make the insurance bet a winner) and thirty-six other cards.
The casinos may use from one to eight decks of cards for play at blackjack. As players use strategies that may depend in part upon the cards that have already been bet (counting strategies), some players like single-deck blackjack. This is a game dealt from the dealer’s hand with both of the player’s cards being dealt face down. Most casinos shy away from single-deck games as hand dealing introduces opportunities for cheating and hence requires more monitoring. In multideck games, the cards are dealt from a shoe. A shoe is a box, usually plastic, into which the shuffled decks of cards are placed. They are dealt as the dealer slides cards from one end of the box through an opening. Shoes are also used with baccarat games and other card games.
The popularity of blackjack derives from the fact that, in addition to allowing a strategy that can give the player the edge, the game is a simple game in concept but also allows for very personal strategies. As a variety of strategies and playing styles is used by players, it is not possible to assess the odds-advantage possessed by the house (casino).  In one strategy, the player seeks simply never to bust. Hence, he or she stands on any cards giving him or her a value of twelve or more, regardless of the card shown by the dealer. Under this strategy, the casino has a 6.35 percent edge over the player. If the player instead mimics the rules followed by the dealer—taking cards when he or she has a sixteen or less and holding on seventeen or more, then the casino’s edge is reduced to 5.90 percent. A more complicated, but more effective, strategy called “basic blackjack strategy” can reduce the house edge to below 1 percent, and to even, or a slight player edge, with a single-deck game. With properly executed card counting (the Thorpe strategy), the player can gain a 1 or 2 percent edge over the house.