Gambling In The Old West

1. Gambling Games In The Old West
2. Gambling In The Old West

Clint Eastwood once claimed that the United States was only responsible for 2 unique art forms:

• Old West Poker Games. In the middle of the 19th century, the largest gambling destination in the United States was San Francisco. That was pretty far west. But other frontier towns also had lots of lawlessness and plenty of gambling.
• Old West gambling game is a crossword puzzle clue. Clue: Old West gambling game. Old West gambling game is a crossword puzzle clue that we have spotted 2 times. There are related clues (shown below).

• Jazz
• The Western

Of course, movie westerns wouldn’t be complete without gambling. Poker is a recurring theme in many of them. Casino gambling was common during the Wild West, too, and you’ll see plenty of that in western movies and TV shows, too. The gambling in Deadwood on HBO was a major plot point.

The Old West Card Table With a Deadly Past DICEY We were drawn to Virginia City, Nevada to learn more about a legendary, cursed gambling table in one of the Old West’s most authentic ghost towns. Gambling in the Old West As towns sprouted in the 19th-century American West — outside Army forts, at river crossings along wagon trails, in mining districts and at railheads — some of the first structures built were recreational facilities.

In the real Old West, you’re looking at a frontier culture. Small, often lawless, towns sprung up in the places you’d expect:

• Near gold mines
• Near military outposts
• Near river crossings

The kinds of people hanging out in such locations are the kind of people who like to take risks. They were the kind of people who liked to drink and gamble. The kinds of businesses that popped up in such location were what you’d expect: bars, bordellos, and casinos. Some of these businesses occupied little more than tents in the mud. A bar might not be much more than a couple of board stretched out across a couple of barrels.

Other than on Deadwood, many movies set during the Wild West make these businesses look bigger and fancier than they were. But make no mistakes, camps became towns, and towns became cities. And in those cities, these businesses grew big and fancy. And the gambling houses were often the biggest and fanciest of these businesses.

The period we think of as “the Old West” or “the Wild West” was actually a relatively short period in our nation’s history. It began when the Civil War ended in 1865, and the period is generally agreed to have ended around 1890, making it just a 25 year segment of time. But what was it actually like to gamble in these places? What was it like to gamble in the Old West? That’s what this post is about.

Faro: The Most Popular Gambling Game in the Old West

When it comes to popular gambling games in the Old West, faro was #1 with a bullet. The game derives its name from the pictures of pharaohs on the backs of the playing cards used for the game.
If you played faro in the Old West, chances weren’t bad that you’d run into an Italian immigrant named Charles Cora, the most successful faro player in the Old West. He won over $85,000 during a 6-month period and broke several casinos. Like today’s card counters, Cora was banned from many casinos.

In faro, one player is the dealer (or “banker”). The other players are “punters.” Since the gamblers in the establishment usually dealt, there were a lot of cheaters in faro. Punters tried to get several cards of one suit that they could lay down on the table in order. You could bet on how many cards you could get. The dealer drew 2 cards. One card was the losing card, and the other was the player’s card. The player’s card was the card determining the winner, and suits didn’t count for this purpose.

If you left bets on a card number that didn’t get drawn, the bet stayed in action. If you placed a bet on a card that matched the dealer’s card, you lost that bet. Bets paid even money. The game was fast and easy, and Old West gamblers loved it. No one plays faro any more, as far as I know.

Poker in the Wild West

One of the most popular card games in the Wild West was poker. Compared with today’s versions of the game, poker in the Old West was much simpler. But it was still a card game with bluffing elements where you played against the other players.
Draw and stud were the 2 most common poker variations played during the Wild West period. The decks of cards were smaller, too—they just had 20 cards in the 4 traditional suits.

The cards were:

• Ace
• King
• Queen
• Jack
• 10

Naturally, you had different hand rankings to deal with in the Old West, too. They also had different names. A full, for example, was like today’s full house. Triplets is what they called a 3 of a kind. And of course, since these are the only cards in the deck, the only kind of straight flush you could get would be a royal flush.

Draw poker was called “jackpots.” It was basically the same game we now know as 5-card draw with jacks or better to open. Even if you don’t know much about the Old West, you’ve probably heard of the famous “dead man’s hand.” Wild Bill Hickock was playing jackpots when he was dealt this hand.

Blackjack in the Wild West

Blackjack was introduced to the Old West via the French community in New Orleans. They called it “vingt-et-un,” which is French for “one-and-twenty.” Some people still call blackjack “21.” As with poker, blackjack was played slightly differently than it is today, although it’s still recognizably the same game.

Also, unlike modern blackjack, you get a card face down before making your bet in vingt-et-un. The dealer also has the opportunity to double the bet sizes. Modern blackjack as played at home often mirrors this, too. You get to take over as the dealer if you and the dealer tie with a “natural” (a 2-card hand totaling 21.) Dealers win triple money from the players if he gets a natural, while players get 2 to 1 if they have a natural.

Mexican Monte

Mexican monte was the national card game of Mexico and was played with a 40-card deck. It was brought to the United States by soldiers who had fought in the Mexican-American War of 1848. The dealer pays off when you get matching cards. This should not be confused with 3-card monte, which is more of a swindle or a hustle than a casino game.

Mexican monte is played with 2 cards from a deck of 40 cards. This is roughly analogous to a modern deck of cards, but the 8s, 9s, and 10s are removed. The players play against the dealer, making this a house-banked game like blackjack. The dealer starts the game by drawing a card from the bottom of the deck and putting it face-up on the table. This is the “bottom layout.” He also draws a card from the top of the deck and places it face-up on the table. Give yourself bonus points if you figure out that this is the “top layout.”

The dealer puts the rest of the cards (“the monte”) face-down in front of him. The players then get to bet on either or both layouts. Betting starts on the dealer’s right and proceeds counter-clockwise. Then the dealer turns the top card of the monte over. This becomes “the gate.”

If you have a bet on a matching suit, you get paid off. But if the gate doesn’t match the suit in the layout, the banker wins all the bets on the layout. John Wesley Hardin, who was famous for killing a man for snoring, is also famous for killing a man over a game of Mexican monte.

Roulette during the Old West

Roulette in the Old West was played more or less the way we play today. The wheel had 38 numbers on it, and this included a green 0 and a green 00. Half of the rest of the numbers were black, while half were red. The house edge was still 5.26%.
Roulette’s one of the oldest gambling games in the world, and it hasn’t changed much over time.

Sports Betting in the Old West

You didn’t bet on football or baseball games during the Old West, but gamblers would bet on almost anything. Some of the most common events to bet on included animal fights, boxing matches, and races.

Animal fights are illegal in most civilized countries now, including the United States, but all kinds of animals were forced to fight in the Old West. Cockfights were common. So were dog and bear fights.Boxing matches were basically street rights. They didn’t use gloves, either. Most of the moves used in a boxing match during the Old West would be against the rules in a modern boxing match, for sure.

Gamblers in the Old West would also bet on any kind of race you could imagine. This might be the gamblers themselves, animals, or even bugs—you know, like in prison movies.

Gambling Games In The Old West

The Dice Game Hazard

The Old West was before craps, but one of craps’ antecedents was played—hazard. Believe it or not, it’s played with 2 dice, but hazard is even more complicated than craps.

The person rolling the dice during hazard is called “the caster.” Before he throws the dice, he has to announce a number between 5 and 9. That number is “the main.”

Any other roll is called “a chance.” The caster gets to keep rolling. If they roll a main after this, they throw out. If they roll the chance, they throw in. (The chance is comparable to a point in craps today.) Otherwise they keep rolling.

You got to continue as the caster until you throw out 3 times in a row. Then the next person to the caster’s left gets to throw the dice.

Famous Casinos of the Old West

Robert A. Parker built the Parker House, one of the most famous old West casinos, as a hotel in San Francisco. Being a smart man, Parker realized that the gambling fever spreading throughout the city was where the real money was to be made.

The Parker House hosted 3 faro tables, 2 monte tables, a roulette table, and a final table that was used for whatever seemed convenient that evening. A professional gambler could pay $10,000 to the house to be allowed to conduct games in the Parker House.

There was also a smaller room behind the bar that professional gamblers could rent for $3500 a month. At one time, a gambler named Jack Gamble rented the 2nd floor for $60,000 and put casino games in all the rooms. On any particular day, $500,000 might be found on the tables of the casino.

That wasn’t the only big casino in San Francisco, either. On either side of The Parker House you could find 2 additional casinos:

• El Dorago Gambling Saloon
• Samuel Dennison’s Exchange

Both properties were owned by entrepreneurs James McCabe and Thomas J.A. Chambers, who were partners. And those are just the names of the largest casinos there. Smaller casinos in San Francisco at the time included such colorfully named establishments as:

• Aguila de Oro
• The Arcade
• The Alhambra
• Bella Union
• The Empire
• The Fontine House

• The Mazourka
• The Rendezvous
• La Souciedad
• The St. Charles
• The Varsouvienne
• The Ward House

Obviously, many of these establishments were owned and operated by French immigrants. Gambling in an Old West casino was different in another respect from gambling at a modern casino. Shooting and stabbings were common there and then. (You’ll rarely hear about that sort of behavior in modern casinos with heavy security.)

I already mentioned Charles Cora, but his faro career came to an end when he shot U.S. Marshal William H. Richardson in 1955 on the street in San Francisco. Most deaths during the period weren’t caused by law enforcement, either. Things had just gotten bad enough, crime-wise, by that point, that the cityfolk had started forming Vigilance Committees again to deal with the violent crime. Cora was hanged for shooting the marshal, even though if he’d committed the murder a few months earlier, he probably would have been exonerated for reasons of self defense.

Gambling was crazy popular in the Wild West. The games were different, and the players were often paying the house to run the games themselves. Eventually, the Old West died a quick death, but for a while, the frontier was the home to all kinds of rough and rowdy sinning. Gambling was just part of it.

Some of that atmosphere lives on, especially in some of the more traditional casinos in Nevada. But one thing’s for sure—they didn’t have slot machines in Old West gambling halls.

Old West Gambling Games - Were they legal? Were they popular?

As people moved into the West in the 1800s, life was hard. Most of these migrants were men: miners, soldiers, explorers, opportunists, teenaged orphans. Entrepreneurs looked for the right circumstances for a business.

With free time, entertainment was what many were after. Proprietors were quick to supply their needs. Gambling establishments opened in old west mining camps and new towns out West. Most often inside the saloons. Let's see the Old West gambling favorites - particularly in Tombstone AZ!

Gambling's Old West Popularity

In those days, wagering was most popular between 1850 & 1910. Almost every town had at least one Old West Bar with a gambling game. Especially in the Old West, numerous saloons had gambling halls to while away free hours.² As a Western town was populated, gaming tables went up in tents. Then as the money flowed, bar-men upgraded. They built nice lounges, like in the Crystal Palace. Regular gambling games such as Faro, Roulette and Poker were established there.

Many men gambled after their work-day. Others were professional gamblers. When Wyatt Earp came to Tombstone, he planned to earn money by gambling.¹ He'd done it before! His friend, Doc Holliday, was a professional gambler.⁷

Somewhat Respectable Sport

In the Old West, gambling was viewed as a legitimate way to make a living. Not all who ran the games were honest. Some were outright con-men. There were those who tried to give it an air of refinement. They set up gambling halls with quality decor.³ Saloons even followed suit.

In certain respects gambling was considered a fine way to have a night's entertainment. Gentlemen particularly went to a quality establishment for this type of a night out. They called it a sporting event.

Those running the games invested their own funds to start the bank. They relied on their reputations as honest dealers. The saloons promoted their dealers as running a respectable game. They knew it brought in business.

The Old West Gambling Town
of Tombstone AZ

Gambling halls were scattered through the Old West city of Tombstone. By 1880 there were nearly 18 choices of places to get into a good game of faro or poker - or try your luck with roulette.¹

For instance, when examining the History of the Crystal Palace, notice their regular assortment of gambling games running during the Old West era. Local newspapers advertised them. An example shows one early partnership who were big on marketing: Bernhardt Wehrfritz and Julius Caesar. Advertising helped bring in people. See their ad here noting all kinds of sporting games, and also music for entertainment.

(By the way - the little code at the end of advertisements means the ad started on a date - example: Jan. 15 - & will run 'tf' = til further notice. One of my first ever jobs was in classified advertising! That's how I know!!)

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Some women gambled, and were professionals in the business, too. Their personalities were as varied as were the men's. But they didn't get the same reception because of their gender. Even with professional skill, they weren't accorded reputational respect - if it indeed called for that.

A few lesser known, but notable women who took up gambling professionally in the old west:⁵

• Lottie Deno - Alias Carlotta J. Thompkins, ended up in Texas in the mid 1860s. Starting by running a San Antonio Hall owned by the Thurmond family. She married Frank Thurmond, and they began traveling around the state, both wagering as professionals. Finally arriving in Fort Griffin (probably where she met Doc Holliday), it's there she made her reputation. By 1882 the Thurmonds tired of that life and settled in New Mexico. She's buried in Deming.
• Kitty Leroy - Dallas TX is where she first dealt Faro, gaining excellent wagering skills. She had a quick temper and often wore men's style clothing. Married five times, she shot one husband. Not known for being faithful! In Deadwood she was most financially successful, opening a saloon. But at age 27 that ended when she was shot and killed by her 5th husband.

Gambling Games & Halls of the Old West

Faro - A Popular Game

Faro was well liked. It had 18th century French origin, going through Europe, finally getting to the U.S.⁴ In the Old Western days of gambling, it was probably the most common, popular game around.¹ Gamblers referred to the gaming hall as a Faro Bank. But technically that meant the dealer's stake in the game. Cash they supplied to run the game.³

It was easy to learn. Not slow, hands went by quickly. Plus players' odds were best of all! It was the most favored game in the 1800s.⁴ Original card decks had a Bengal Tiger illustration on the back-side. Therefore the nickname: Bucking the Tiger. Sometimes a tiger picture was in a window announcing a game.⁸

After a while problems surfaced because of the odds. Dealers began all sorts of cheating systems. Equipment manufacturers got involved. They made cheat dealing boxes. In return, players began to cheat also.⁸

A well known Faro 'Shark' was Bat Masterson. He'd talk a good tale to the dealer during games, for distraction. On the next round, the absorbed dealer would forget to shuffle. Bat then remembered the prior card turns, and won the plays. In Tombstone Bat witnessed his two friends, Luke Short and Charlie Storms, in a gunfight over a faro game at the Oriental Saloon.⁸

Legitimate gaming sponsors warned players that virtually all Faro games were dishonest. Cheating dealers were prosecuted. Cases even went to the Supreme Court. By the end of WWII, only a few games could still be found - in Nevada. By the 1980s, there were no more, even there.² It wasn't worth it to the gaming houses.

How to Play Faro - the Basics

• Place your chip(s) on the card(s) on the Faro board, that you're betting on to win

1. You can also bet to lose by placing a penny (copper) on top of your chips

• Dealer draws a card from the deck that loses - if your chip is on that card to win, you lose the bet.

1. If you bet it to lose, though - you win the bet.

• Dealer draws a card from the deck that wins - if your chip is on that card to win, you win the bet.

1. If you bet it to lose, though - you lose the bet.

• Cards already played are tracked with a case-keeper - so you can judge the chances of a card coming up.
• There are ways for multiple cards to be bet on the Faro board.
• Finally, there are 3 cards left in the deck. It's time for 'Calling the Turn.'

1. Each player guesses the order of the card draw - get it right to win 4 times the stake

Today, some people play it for fun only - no money involved! You'll find people who instruct the game in many Old West towns.

• In Tombstone the Oriental Saloon has a regular Faro instructor.
• In the small community of Cochise AZ, the historic Cochise Hotel is owned by an expert in Faro instruction. We bought our own Faro board from him. He has a room on-site that's like an Old West Faro gambling museum! If you go there for a stay, ask to see it.
• There's a Faro night at the Tombstone Monument Guest Ranch.
• At our house, we've played once a week with friends. When we do this, it's a good time!

Record Poker Game!

Tombstone's Bird Cage Theatre, in the Old West, was among other things, a place for gambling. The exclusive game was in the basement. It was high stakes poker. $1000 needed to start to play: to get in the game!

A record setter as the longest Poker Game in the Old Wild West was there. Continuously ongoing, it lasted 8 years, 5 months and 3 days. Bat Masterson, George Randolph Hurst and Diamond Jim Brady were regular players. Players would get in and out - but the game itself, continued on.

Keno

Another popular option was the game of Keno. In Tombstone, the local gaming halls publicized Keno spots by employing a sort of 'Town Crier' who roamed the main streets. One observer found it amusingly odd, saying he heard a 'sonorous voice proclaim... that a keno game is about to commence, and ring a large bell as though he were calling... to a free dinner, or an auction....'¹

The game originated with Chinese immigrants who came to work on the transcontinental railroad. The Chinese government since former times sponsored a game called baige piao to raise money. It was a popular lottery game that the Chinese brought with them.⁶

In the Old West, Americans they interacted with couldn't quite pronounce those Chinese words. The slurring pronunciation turned into something more like Keno. In the early 1900s it was made an official game and the name 'Keno' became its signature form.⁶

Frontier Gambling

Bisbee, AZ

Bisbee Arizona, a copper mining town, about 23 miles Southeast of Tombstone. Brewery Gulch was the booming Old West saloon and gambling area. Another saloon strip was along Main Street, and that's where the Orient Saloon was. It opened March 11, 1902.¹⁵

The National Archives photo above was taken by C.S. Fly. It shows John Murphy dealing. Others known, left to right:

• Tony Downs, part owner of the Orient, wearing a derby. He's standing.
• Doyle is a concert hall singer, sporting a derby hat. He's sitting at the table's corner.
• The Dutch Kid stands behind Doyle
• Sleepy Dick is the Orient's porter. He's toward the right, behind the man with his head down. He's wearing a light felt hat.
• Charlie Bassett with the soft felt hat, stands in the rear by the wall
• Smiley Lewis sits, placing his bets, wearing the silk top-hat.

Prescott Arizona

The local newspaper in Old West Prescott even viewed their own gambling halls as rivals for Tombstone. From the clip above, you can see they promoted a Poker Rivalry!

Talk about long Poker Games, with high stakes! - Who Has the Longest?!! Who has the highest stakes??

North Platte Nebraska

Along railroad construction routes, many towns sprung up, just as gold and silver mining generated new towns in the Old West. Similar to those mining towns, young railroad workers looked for excitement in their off-hours. Entrepreneurs included those Gambling Professionals.

North Platte was a prime example. In the mid 1860s, it sprung up with a slew of unmarried men with railroad earnings. A newspaper reporter noted 'every known game under the sun is played. Every house is a saloon and every saloon is a gambling den.'³

Cheyenne Wyoming

The railroad reached Cheyenne in the late 1860s. With it came gambling houses. Professionals ran in every saloon, which a newly arrived preacher was dismayed to note was almost every house in town!³

One of note was the Cheyenne Club. Those who made the big bucks in town: from the railroad, and particularly the cattle barons, became members there. A private men's club, constructed in 1881, at 17th St. and Warren Ave.⁹

One of those exclusive venues with deluxe amenities. A gorgeous, covered wrap-around porch, a billiards room, a library, and exquisite dining. Card rooms were appointed with luxuries¹⁰ - but seek out the high stakes games if you were up for it!¹¹ It was torn down in 1936.⁹

Gambling Comes to an End

In the early 1800s, religious groups began opposing gambling per their morality. Their ire was aimed at lotteries prevalent in the Northeast.¹³ Government officials in the Old West were influenced by what was happening back East regarding gambling. They had their eyes on any gaming around. States started to enact laws banning wagers.¹²

In a Globe Arizona newspaper, you can see one gambler's viewpoint from an interview when all this gambling opposition began. When Arizona became a state in 1912, gambling was officially outlawed.¹²

Gambling In The Old West

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Gambling Laws today

The laws have gone back and forth until today. Now each state has varied regulations about gaming. To each their own! Plus sovereign Native American Nations also regulate their own gambling laws.¹³

Currently in Arizona, gambling can be done in Tribal casinos, at a dog track or horse track (choose one per day!) and in the state lottery. Yet there is Class II gaming that's allowed. They call it Bingo rules games. There must be at least two players who play against each other - not against a bank or house.¹⁴

This law covers the poker games like you'll find in Tombstone. Check out the Poker Game at Doc Holliday's on Allen Street.

References

1 Bailey, L.R. (2004). Too tough to die: The rise, fall and resurrection of a silver camp; 1878 to 1990. Tucson AZ: Westernlore Press.

2 Thompson, C. (2016, Dec. 1). Ask Clay: What is 'coppering a bet' and faro? The Republic/azcentral.com. Retrieved from azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/claythompson/2016/12/01/ask-clay-what-coppering-bet-and-faro/94631726/

3 Williamson, G.R. (2018). Gambling in the Old West. Kerrville, TX: Indian Head Publishing.

4 Benford, S. (May 1, 2010). Faro stacked old west with winners, cheats. The Arizona Republic. Retrieved from pressreader.com/

5 Sumner, L. (March 13, 2017). Outrageous Gambling Women of the Old West. Cool Cat Casino. Retrieved from coolcat-casino.com/articles/outrageous-gambling-women-of-the-old-west.php

6 Applegate, E. (June 16, 2017). What Is Keno. Cool Cat Casino. Retrieved from coolcat-casino.com/articles/what-is-keno.php

7 Traywick, B. (Oct. 1977). Doc Holliday. Wild West. Retrieved from historynet.com/doc-holliday

8 Sanders, J.R. (Oct. 1996). Faro: Favorite gambling game of the frontier. Wild West. Retrieved from historynet.com/faro-favorite-gambling-game-of-the-frontier.htm

9 Funk, J. (June 30, 2017). Opera House, Cheyenne Club, more, failed to last test of time. Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Retrieved from wyomingnews.com/opera-house-cheyenne-club-more-failed-to-last-test-of/article_3d6711aa-5a93-11e7-8aee-4f5524b3dc7d.html

10 Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce (2018). About Cheyenne. Retrieved from cheyennechamber.org/about-cheyenne-wyoming

11 Branigan, J. (May 11, 2011). The Cheyenne Club. Nagle Warren Mansion Bed & Breakfast: Enjoy the life of a cattle baron, at least for a few minutes. Retrieved from naglewarrenmansion.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/the-cheyenne-club/

12 Rose, I.N. (1997). Gambling and the law: Pivotal dates. Whittier Law School. Retrieved from pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/gamble/etc/cron.html

13 HG.org (1996-2019). A history of American gaming laws. Legal Resources. Retrieved from hg.org/legal-articles/a-history-of-american-gaming-laws-31222

14 FindLaw Team (2019). Arizona gambling laws. Thomson Reuters. Retrieved from statelaws.findlaw.com/arizona-law/arizona-gambling-laws.html

15 Bisbee Daily Review (March 12, 1902) Orient opening. Pg. 1, Bisbee, Arizona. Retrieved from www.newspapers.com/image/40677005

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