• Civil War Gambling

In the early years of American history, gambling was quite popular in the colonies, as America was known as at that time, being part of Great Britain prior to the American revolution.

1. The American Civil War was the culmination of the struggle between the advocates and opponents of slavery that dated from the founding of the United States. This sectional conflict between Northern states and slaveholding Southern states had been tempered by a series of political compromises, but by the late 1850s the issue of the extension of slavery to the western states had reached a.
2. Perhaps nine tenths of the soldiers played some game of cards, and about three-fourths indulged in gambling. As soon as the men stacked their arms for the.

While the extent of gambling back then differed by region, with some locales embracing it more than others, there was no large scale prohibition of it. If a certain area wanted gambling it prospered, and if another didn’t, that was fine as well.

Lotteries in particular were quite popular back then, and the proceeds from them helped the public infrastructure of this young country grow, particularly in expanding the school system.

By early 1862, Louisville had eighty thousand Union troops throughout the city. With so many troops, entrepreneurs set up gambling spots offering keno, fero, roulette and poker (C-J, 1920) along the North side of Jefferson from 4 th to 5 th Street, extending around the corner from 5 th to Market, then continuing on the South side of Market back to 4 th Street.

The British sought to limit these lotteries, and the will to escape such restrictions contributed in part to the impetus to break free of their reign and see America achieve independence from British rule.

After the Revolution, gambling continued to prosper in the United States during the eighteenth century. In the mid 18th century, we started to see movements against gambling arise, which for instance created the riverboat gambling scene on the Mississippi, where gambling operators were driven to provide their entertainment over water to seek to escape the growing opposition to it on land.

Around this time, the anti gambling movement got a strong foothold in the Northeast, and soon even lotteries disappeared from the scene. Gambling became more and more driven underground, as the demand for it persisted even in the face of laws against it.

Even the widespread gambling in California brought about as a result of the gold rush was met by government interference, as the tide mounted against it. It didn’t go away though, it continued to operate and flourish, but outside the law.

The American Frontier was a bastion of legal gambling, who had a much more tolerant attitude toward gamblers, and even saw professional gambling as a respectable trade. Gambling houses were frequent, and at least during this time, it was very well tolerated.

During the Reconstruction movement after the conclusion of the Civil War, gambling proliferated in the South, and experienced a revival for a time. Proceeds of lotteries were used to help rebuild this area to help these states recover from the damage that the war had wrought.

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Gambling In The 20th Century in the U.S.

By the time the 20th century arrived, gambling became widely prohibited country wide, and given that it was now illegal, the business became turned over to the criminals, and organized crime elements were quick to capitalize on this, as they did during the Prohibition area in taking over the sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages.

Certain areas with more tolerance towards gambling such as Miami, Florida and Galveston, Texas became hotbeds for illegal gambling during this time, although it did flourish quite well in the country overall, as did drinking alcohol.

The failure of alcohol prohibition is widely accepted, but we’ve been less prone to accept the failure of gambling prohibition, although the two fail for exactly the same reasons, as fairly unpopular laws don’t succeed very well.

In the early 1930’s, the state of Nevada fell upon hard economic times and made the decision to legalize gambling, which was the first wave of a tide that has been growing since, albeit quite slowly. Southern Maryland had legalized slot machines during the 50’s and part of the 60’s, and Atlantic City opened up to gambling in 1977.

More and more states started offering lotteries, and the coming of Indian casinos greatly expanded the land based gambling centers in many areas of the country. Several states legalized riverboat casinos again, and soon afterward the requirement that they be located over water was abolished.

This land based expansion continues on into the 21st century, and has now spilled over into the internet frontier, with three states now embracing regulated online gambling and several more in the process of debating it.

The New Frontier For Gambling in the U.S.

As far as the law is concerned, there are many countries that legislate gambling at the federal level, but the United States is not one of them. This is a state run affair, and prior to telecommunication, it used to be an entirely state run affair, and it’s only since information has been transmitted across state lines that the federal government has even become involved.

Many of today’s anti gambling statutes at the state level were fashioned during these earlier years of gambling prohibition, and many haven’t even been updated since. Some of these statutes compile a list of prohibited gambling games and some of them haven’t been played for over a hundred years.

In particular, the laws have been crafted to deal exclusively with land based gambling, that which occurs exclusively at a physical location within the state’s boundaries, like a gambling hall.

Contrary to what many believe, laws can prohibit gambling without specifically referencing a certain form of it, even though laws often do specify a list of prohibited games. Depending on how the law is written, it usually does not matter whether a certain form, like placing wagers on a computer, is specified as being illegal or not, as the prohibitions can and often do take a general form.

For instance the law may specify that placing a wager on any game of chance, or even stronger, placing a bet on any contingent event, meaning that the outcome is uncertain at the time of the wager, is a crime, and this can often be read to prohibit all forms of wagering that are not specifically authorized by law.

The coming of the internet and internet wagering did certainly change the landscape of gambling law significantly though, on several fronts, and together with the gambling market moving toward more tolerance and acceptance, this has created a very interesting dynamic already, with many interesting issues emerging and more set to come as the situation continues to evolve.

There is great outrage across the United States at the thought of building a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero in NYC. Political pundits, politicians, and everyday people are concerned about this issue. Some people say that the idea of a mosque one-tenth of a mile from Ground Zero is morally wrong.[i] The religion which condoned the attacks that left thousands of people dead should pick another spot for their mosque and community center. Other people counter that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution prevents us legally and morally from preventing the construction of the mosque. To deny the freedom of religion to Muslims is hypocritical and contrary to our national moral compass. Interestingly, at a site a little over 200 miles away from Ground Zero, a similar war of words is being waged over the right to build a structure that is morally offensive to some people. This site is Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania and the structure is a casino.

In 2005 a developer planned to build a large casino and hotel at the northwest corner of Gettysburg.[ii] Concerned local townspeople and businesses, as well as national historic preservation interests prevented the approval of the project by the Pennsylvania government. A year later the same development company wanted to refurbish an existing hotel on the south side of the park into the Mason-Dixon Casino and submitted a plan to do so. Citizens, both local and national, as well as historic preservation advocates are fighting to prevent the approval of this plan. Their main argument is that the casino’s business plan is flawed. In essence, these people who oppose the casino are just as outraged about this local issue as many Americans are about the proposed construction of the mosque in New York City.

Will a proposed casino one-half mile from Gettysburg National Military Park detract from the historical significance of this memorial? Personally I believe that it will, just as the construction of a Wal-Mart outside the Wilderness National Military Park in Virginia will detract from its historical significance. In addition to the aesthetic reasons for not having a commercial presence so close to what is hallowed ground, there are definite economic concerns of what a casino will do to the local economy.

The main source of income in Gettysburg is what is called “heritage tourism.” This type of tourism refers to travel by all ages to participate in the cultural history of an area. In Gettysburg the tourists range from children (I remember taking my three-year old daughter here) to elderly retirees finally able to travel and see the country. Millions of dollars are pumped into the local economy through lodging, food, tours, and shopping. Now the developers of the Mason-Dixon casino promise the people of Gettysburg that even more money will be pumped into their wallets when the casino opens. There are numerous problems with their business plan, but there are two primary problems that were identified by the Public and Environmental Finance Associates (PEFA) in an independent analysis of the Local Impact Report (LIR) prepared by the developers.[iii] (Click here to view the report). The first is that the LIR does not properly account for the jobs the casino developers promise will be created. The second is that the LIR did not look at the problems other towns with national historic sites encountered once gambling was authorized. Charles McElhose, a local business owner and a spokesman for Businesses Against the Casino, said that “Many things were unaccounted for, or perhaps purposefully omitted, in the Mason-Dixon impact report. …There is very real potential for a ‘snowball effect’ that could devastate our economy.” Obviously, both the Mason-Dixon Casino and the Businesses Against the Casino have their own agendas, but the analysis of the LIR by PEFA shows some inconsistencies in the LIR that could “devastate” the Gettysburg economy.

The first LIR claim that the PEFA analysis debunks is the promise that the local economy will improve from the millions of dollars that would pour into the casino. What the LIR doesn’t make clear is that this amount of money would merely be diverted from heritage tourism into the casino. The PEFA study says that 78.4 million dollars that is normally spent at small businesses would be spent solely in the casino. PEFA estimates that 1,130 existing jobs and numerous businesses would be lost. Similarly, while the LIR claims that the casino will require “375 full-time equivalent positions,” in reality these jobs are “cannibalized from an existing local business.” The economic promise of these jobs is no better than any current jobs because the 375 jobs are actually a mix of full and part-time positions that pay only slightly above minimum wage. Lastly, there is the issue of how much of their own money the residents of Gettysburg will spend gambling. The only people who get rich at casinos are the owners. Despite the promise of easy riches, only a lucky few ever get rich. Most everybody else just gets poorer.

The second issue that the LIR didn’t examine was how gambling impacted a similar community. The LIR cited well-know gambling cities like Atlantic City as the source for information on how Gettysburg would prosper if the casino was built. Why didn’t the developers cite a place like Vicksburg, Mississippi which has a similar size and economy? It’s because gambling at Vicksburg has negatively impacted the heritage tourism economy in that city.

Vicksburg is the site of Vickburg National Military Park, which contains many of the site from the final siege and assault of that city in 1863. Thousands of visitors tour the park each year and bring needed dollars into the local economy. The PEFA study reveals that in 1994, when casinos first opened on riverboats moored on the Mississippi,visitation to the park plummeted. It took four years for the numbers to recover to pre-1994 levels. In 2005 when Hurricane Katrina caused devastation throughout the South, visitation to the park took another significant drop. After the damage from the hurricane was repaired at the park and the casinos, visitation to the park dropped by 20 percent although traffic on the highway to the main entrance rose 12 percent. One can infer this is because people were taking this alternate route to the casinos because at the same time traffic on the primary route rose by 64 percent! People were bypassing the historic park to go gamble. The PEFA study also revealed that downtown Vicksburg is suffering from the failed economic promise of the casino. Approximately 40 percent of the buildings are empty and traffic on key portions of the streets is down by 17 percent. From these statistics it is easy to imagine something similar happening to Gettysburg with the Mason-Dixon Casino.

The Mason-Dixon Casino is promising a golden tomorrow for the residents of Gettysburg, but the casino’s promise is hollow. The town leaders and the citizens of this town would be wise to put up a united front against a deeply flawed plan that promises only future problems. When the developers have sucked ever possible dollar from the local community you can bet that these people will put Gettysburg in their rear-view mirror. They won’t see the damage they have done to the local economy through addiction to gambling and reduced economic prosperity. They will just be looking for the next historic site to ruin in their quest for the almighty dollar.

Civil War Gambling

Image: “Anne Gambling” From flickr, attribution to greengardenvienna