The first settlement in New York Harbor was established by Dutch fur traders in 1613 and was called New Amsterdam. These early traders were adventurers, gamblers, willing to take big risks for big profits.
One particularly shrewd player, Peter Minuit, convinced the resident Native Americans to sell him Manhattan Island and Staten Island for about $24 worth of goods. The Indians, to whom the idea of land ownership was ridiculous, thought they got the better deal.
Conquered by the British in 1664, the settlements' name was changed to New York in honor of the Duke of York. Unlike Puritan New England, gambling in New York was a popular, socially accepted activity under the British.
Colonial America was a new, untamed land with opportunity and danger at every turn. Only the most rugged, independent risktakers were attracted to it.
Eventually, they wanted to run their own game. The leaders of the American Revolution bet their lives and all they owned in a no-limit confrontation with the world's strongest player, Great Britain. New York City became the first capital of the newly formed United States. In 1789, the first President, George Washington, was inaugurated at Federal Hall on Wall Street.
The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 doubled the size of the country. As the frontier moved westward into the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys, New York City developed into a major port and financial center. Gambling thrived in the taverns that crowded early mercantile New York. The working class section of the city known as "The Bowery" was a rough gambling district.
In addition to wagering on card and dice games, "blood sports" were popular.
Patsy Hearn's grogshop had a "Men's Sporting Parlor" famous for its rat fights.
It was estimated in 1850 that there were "6,000 places in the metropolis, or approximately one to every eighty-five inhabitants, where gambling in one form or another was permitted." The New York Herald described the city in 1850 as "the great headquarters of the gamblers in this country". Gamblers were estimated to be winning $5 million annually from NYC citizens.
For twenty years before and after the Civil War, John Morrissey was the most famous gambler and casino operator the country had ever seen. And, he was one of the most colorful characters of his era. A tough Irish brawler, Morrissey shocked the world when won the U.S. Championship in New York in 1852, outlasting skilled professional boxer Yankee Sullivan in a 37- round melee. The Champ retired undefeated in 1858. Using his fame and fortune, Morrissey next turned to the gambling business.
Eventually, he owned and operated five gaming houses in New York City. The wealthiest and most powerful men in the country were among his regular patrons.
Historian Herbert Asbury tells us that Morrissey "was an expert Poker player, and in private sessions with his friends was noted for scrupulous fairness" but his public casinos "were operated as skinning houses".
With the money he made from his NYC gambling houses, Morrissey developed Saratoga Springs as the foremost gambling resort in the country. It included a luxurious hotel, casino, spa, opera house, theater and race track. Richard A. Canfield, America's first great casino king, opened the Madison Square Club in NYC in 1888. While almost every gambling hall cheated players, Canfield understood that housebanked games assured the casino could be run profitably as well as honestly.
The décor of the Club was dignified and comfortable, a stark contrast to the loud, gaudy "hells" that dominated NYC. It was distinguished, too, for being an honest operation. The Saratoga resort and track, neglected for some years after Morrissey owned it, was bought by Canfield. He renovated it and again made it the greatest gaming resort in America. It was a favorite of the rich and powerful. Presidents Cleveland and Taft were frequent guests. Industrialist Cornelius Vanderbilt once had an epileptic seizure while playing poker. When he recovered, the game resumed.
Canfield eventually sold Saratoga and returned to New York City where he opened a fabulous casino called "The House of the Bronze Doors" just blocks from Time Square. A few years later he was wiped out in another game, the Stock Market, and died in 1914.
The last man to really harness gambling in the Big Apple was Arnold Rothstein. Born in Manhattan in 1882, he grew-up in the city.
Rothstein brought together the diverse elements of the underworld and fashioned them into a highly profitable industry whose goods and services were illegal. He introduced organized crime.
In 1910, Rothstein opened his first gambling house on West 46th Street. Within a few years he had politicians and the NYPD in his pocket. Through gambling, Rothstein eventually financed much of the criminal activity in the Eastern U.S. Prohibition in 1920 created an upheaval in Rothstein's organized crime empire. Suddenly it was a lawless free-for-all. Arnold shunned the booze business. An organization man, he concluded there was no controlling it. An avid gambler himself, Rothstein dropped $320,000 in a poker game one evening. Convinced the game was fixed; he refused to pay and walked out. A few weeks later he was gunned down in a room at the Park Central Hotel.
With the end of Prohibition, the Great Depression, and World War II gambling in New York City would never again reach the level of acceptance and significance it had during the city's earlier history.
