Several western towns were known for gambling: Tombstone, Deadwood, and Dodge City, for example. But if one were able to go back in time and ask the “sporting men” of the West, Prescott would be among the very best places to play. Gambling was immensely popular in the early days of Prescott. An 1884 account in the Weekly Arizona Miner proclaimed, “Faro dealers say that Prescott is the best gambling town in the West.”
Years earlier, a December 1870 blurb in the Miner reported that “no less than seven banking games [were] in full blast here—a greater number than most towns [three or four times larger] usually keep up.” The following month, one correspondent, writing for the San Francisco Alba, described Prescott as having “saloons, gambling houses ’till you can’t rest,’ and a Spanish dance house…where they kill a man at least once a week.”
Faro was the West’s most popular game. The rules were easy to learn, the action was fast, and the odds were better than those of other games. Yavapai County Sheriff, Prescott Mayor, and Rough Rider hero William Owen O’Neill took the nickname of Buckey because he often went against the odds at the faro table, which was known as “bucking the tiger."
Gambling went on strongly until the “Panic of 1873” created a severe global economic depression. Despite this, the Miner reported, “Gambling is still the rage in our saloons. Where the money comes from is a mystery.”
In 1876, the Prescott village council passed Ordinance 8, requiring the purchase of licenses for gambling games, saloons, dogs, and hogs, among other things. Gambling licenses were $10 a month (about $300 today). Saloon licenses were one-third the cost at $10 per quarter. Revenue from the gambling licenses would fund public schools.
The Chinese population of Prescott also loved gambling. “The most consummate gamblers to be found anywhere are among the Chinese of Prescott,” the Miner observed. “Several Chinese games are running every night in this town, and we have not heard of their paying [for] a gambling license.” After this report, several Chinese gamers were arrested and made to pay the fee.
Prescott’s reputation as a great town for gaming seemed to bring a better class of professional gamblers. “We know a great many professional and half-shell gamesters,” the Miner acknowledged, “but so far, none of them have hoarded any money. In fact, they have proved themselves to be free-hearted, liberal men.”
In 1880, the Village Council passed Ordinance 20, which increased the license fee for gambling to $15, (about $500 today) and was far more specific as to what applied: “Faro, monte, pass-faro, pass-monte, rondeau, roulette, twenty-one, dice, red and black, rouge et noir, lansquenette [sic], or any other banking games [by] whatever name,” it delineated. If one did not purchase a license and was convicted, the penalty was $25-$100. For those participating in an unlicensed game, the penalty was $10-$100. The ordinance further stated that it was not “necessary to prove that money or anything of value was lost or won by any person.”
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| Montezuma. St. circa 1880 |
In 1889, Prescott had four top-end gambling resorts that featured live orchestras. That was twice the number of other towns the same size. The Palace Gambling Hall was one such place and offered Keno every night.
In February 1893, Prescott’s new police chief came upon a wheel of chance at the corner of Montezuma and Gurley. But instead of giving a cash prize, this wheel paid in gifts, trinkets, and sundries. Mamie Hawkins was spied paying 25 cents and spinning the wheel, which landed on a handkerchief as her prize. Although the wheel’s proprietor, D. Greiner, paid $5 for a peddler’s license, this was insufficient. Chief Fagan forced the man to buy the $15 gambling license. As for the lady, she was arrested “under the ordinance forbidding lewd women, etc., to give countenance to or speak to a male person on the street,” the paper reported. She pleaded guilty, paid an $8 fine, and immediately swore a complaint charging Greiner with violating the same ordinance. He was arrested, pleaded guilty, and paid a $10 fine. Since starting his scheme, Greiner had to hand over $30 to Prescott (worth over $1000 today)! The following month, the Village Council outlawed all gaming on the streets, alleys, and vacant lots.
In 1901, the Arizona Territory passed a law that tripled the gambling license fee to $360 a year (nearly $14,000 today). It also made cheating at gambling punishable by two years in prison or a $1000 fine (around $39,000 today).
In 1902, the Weekly Journal-Miner gave an account of a “round the table stud” game with five men playing behind closed doors at the Anheuser saloon. “Over $5000 in gold was on the table,” (upwards of $190,000 today), “and as much more in paper was ‘in reach’. Some of the calls were as high as $1000” (nearly $38,000 today). It was reported that $3000 was lost (over $113,000 today). The paper wrote that accounts like this “give Prescott the distinction of being one of the best centers of sporting money in the Southwest.” At that time, the Chinese started hosting what the paper called “the Chinese policy game”, otherwise known as “Fan-Tan”. For those who did not want to join games on Granite Street, the Palace started offering it.
A whopping 109 gambling licenses were issued in 1902, bringing in $3270 (over $123,000 today) for schools in the first quarter alone. However, this was creating an increasingly uneasy relationship. Most people thought that gambling did more harm than good, but the schools needed a source of funding.
“In every portion of Arizona [in 1904], with the exception of Prescott, there is open hostility to the maintenance of public gambling,” the Journal-Miner observed. Interestingly, this was largely due to rampant cheating. “We believe there is no possibility of the people here [outlawing gambling]. It is an indisputable fact that the open games in this city are today, and have been for years, (with a few exceptions), conducted [ethically]. As long as gambling is honestly conducted…it would be advisable to leave well enough alone.”
But in 1906, Congress nearly passed a bill outlawing gambling in US territories (meaning Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma). Perhaps, in part, hoping to increase chances for statehood, the Territory outlawed gambling in 1907.
In 1922 Prescott saw its largest modernization ever and its first big growth spurt.
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SOURCES:
Weekly Arizona Miner:
5/23/1884, Pg. 3 Col. 1.
12/3/1870, Pg. 3 Col. 2.
1/28/1871, Pg. 1 Col. 2.
8/2/1873, Pg. 3 Col. 1.
2/25/1876, Pg. 3 Col. 2.
3/10/1876, Pg. 2 Col. 4.
3/27/1874, Pg. 3 Col. 4.
7/25/1879, Pg. 3 Col. 1.
4/2/1880, Pg. 3 Col. 1.
3/13/1889, Pg. 3 Col. 3.
11/13/1889, Pg. 3 Col. 2.
Weekly Journal-Miner:
2/8/1893, Pg. 1 Col. 5.
3/29/1893, Pg. 1 Col. 7.
3/20/1901, Pg. 1 Col. 6.
3/20/1901, Pg. 3 Col. 6.
1/22/1902, Pg. 3 Col. 4.
4/16/1902, Pg. 1 Col. 7.
6/18/1902, Pg. 4 Col. 3.
12/28/1904, Pg. 6_ Cols. 2-3.
1/24/1906, Pg. 6.
2/14/1906, Pg. 5 Col. 1.
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