Betting Sports: Ace in the “Hole” has a Gambling Tradition

Betting Sports: Ace in the “Hole” has a Gambling Tradition

By Jake Nichols

Jackson Hole, Wyoming.-It’s a scene synonymous with the Old West: Swinging doors leading to a smoke-filled saloon decked with card tables and roulette wheels. Gambling, at least in the wild west myth, goes good with whiskey, whores and Wyoming.

Jackson Hole has a rich gambling tradition – mostly illegal. Tall tales of covert casinos and basement blackjack lasting through the 1970s are largely true. It seems, perhaps, the moral opposition, with its warning of societal decay have often trumped local interests in 50 years of gambling debate. But with a recession looming and government budgets busting, serious talk of legalizing forms of gambling is making its way through legislation.

Last year, states raked in $20 billion in revenue from gambling operations.
If Wyoming’s energy industry continues to sag, could the Cowboy State once again roll the dice? If so, how long before Teton Village sports a brand new casino, or the roulette wheel spins again at the Silver Dollar Bar?

Jackson’s Hole gambles
Through the latter half of the 1800s, Wyoming was a mere territory. Railroad ruffians, miners and miscreants packed Cheyenne bars and back alleys with games of chance: poker, keno, faro, ‘lambskinnet,’ roulette and dice. Bets were placed on anything from boxing matches and dog fights to foot races and horse races.
“Gambling is an inherent attribute of the human heart. Show me the man who will not gamble in some way, and I will show you an imbecile,” Crook County Rep. Tom Hooper said in 1888.

So infectious was the disease, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association adopted a resolution in 1885, outlawing gambling during roundups so ranchers wouldn’t be tempted to “lose the herd on the flip of a hole card.”

Eventually, state legislators acquiesced to the growing number of churches and women in the new ‘civilized’ West with the McGill Act, officially outlawed gambling in Wyoming in 1901.

During the Great Depression, a number of gambling proposals were brought before state legislatures, but Wyoming failed to go all in.

“In 1935, Wyoming almost became a Nevada,” said Phil Roberts, a professor and member of the University of Wyoming’s History Department. “A bill legalizing full casino gambling passed both houses on the last day of the legislative session, only to be vetoed by Gov. Leslie Miller.”

The way it was
Historian Jack Huyler, in his book “And That’s the Way It Was in Jackson’s Hole,” remembers witnessing a huge money bet once in the late 1930s. A nursing convention was in town. One of the nurses walked into the Log Cabin Saloon and straight up to the roulette wheel. She plunked $1,000 down on ‘red’ without a word to anyone. “We all held our breath,” Huyler said. The marble fell in ‘red’ and she walked out with the winnings, never to be seen by locals again.

In 1933, a disgruntled gamer named Wilbur Woodrow sued Charles and Jesse Wort and Otto Johns for running a speakeasy, retail liquor business and gambling house out of the Wort Livery Stable in Jackson during Prohibition. Woodrow was allegedly pistol-whipped by the defendants for his meddling.

The Wort Hotel and Log Cabin Saloon led the way with illegal gambling through the 1940s and 1950s. In full flaunt of the law, slot machines could be found the lobby of The Wort, with poker blackjack, roulette, and craps in the bar/casino. Even Jackson mayor Harry Clissold could often be found at the card tables.
Local historian Charles Craighead wrote in his historical book, “Meet Me at The Wort,” that gambling in the early days was just for fun:

“Gambling was a pastime, a form of entertainment to help friends pass the long, severe winters. A poker game could last all night with only a few dollars changing hands, and by spring most IOUs were either torn up or worked off,” Craighead wrote.

Things began to change in the mid-1950s when professional dealers and other associates of the Las Vegas gaming industry began moving into the Jackson Hole market. Complaints of marked decks and rigged machines were common but no one seemed to mind as long as it was the tourists getting ripped off. And everyone was in on it.

Teton County Attorney Wilford Neilson frequently tipped off bar manager Steve Bartek (The Wort) to any impending raids planned by state officials. Then-Sheriff Olin Emery would often help load slot machines into waiting trucks.

The winning ticket
The recent Wyoming House Bill 170 was not the first attempt at joining the Powerball lottery. A similar bill failed in 2007, though the nonpartisan Legislative Service Office estimated that a lottery in Wyoming could generate $12 million in annual revenue.

Lotteries, historically, have commonly been viewed as an acceptable way to raise money for building projects without raising taxes. The 13 original colonies used lotteries to raise revenue and to establish colleges, churches, libraries and hospitals. But lotteries had largely turned into swindles by the 1800s.

“Lottery King” James Pattee set up fraudulent lotteries in at least four states before moving to Laramie and establishing the nationwide Wyoming Lottery in 1875. He made $7 million in the first year alone by advertising in the New York Herald. He skedaddled to Canada two years later, never paying out more than 50 cents for a $100,000 grand prize drawing. As a consequence, Wyoming outlawed lotteries in 1879, as did most states by 1900.

The era of the modern state lottery began in 1964 in New Hampshire. New York and New Jersey soon followed with their own state lotteries. By 1998, every continental state without a lottery bordered at least one state with one, making out-of-state lottery gambling a hot ticket.

Gambling craps out
By 1951, the slots were gone at The Wort, but open gambling remained and Jackson’s notoriety became too big to ignore. After Fortune magazine listed Jackson as the second toughest town in the U.S., Gov. Milward Simpson had had enough.
In 1955, pressure from Cheyenne drove the gaming tables underground (Patrons had to supply a password for the basement casino dubbed the “Snakepit”). And Simpson became further incensed when a photograph in Salt Lake City’s Deseret News revealed a local man dealing blackjack at the Log Cabin Saloon.

Gov. Simpson instructed Neilson to impeach Sheriff Emery. Neilson would not. Simpson sent the state Attorney General to Jackson. He threatened the National Guard would move in next and clean out the town. Emery finally resigned and four liquor licenses were suspended.

But it didn’t end there. The Wort continued to offer gambling on the QT, moving games around covertly from the basement to various hotel rooms in town and as far away as the Flat Creek Ranch. When the brothers John and Jess Wort sold the hotel in 1960, the new owner attempted to revive the gambling big time, but by 1961, gambling in Jackson was all but played out.

Despite changing attitudes since, Wyoming lawmakers and voters have continually defeated attempts loosen the reins on gambling, including a 1994 ballot initiative that would have allowed full-fledged casinos.

The losing ticket
One of Wyoming HB 170s main obstacles was Eric Spector, president and CEO of Wyoming Downs, the state’s only horseracing facility.

In an apparent attempt to placate Spector, HB 170 included the installation of 1,000 lottery gaming machines at his facility in Uinta County, effectively creating one more of the fastest-growing gambling facilities in the country – a ‘racino.’ That move was a deal breaker for Gov. Dave Freudenthal.

“I have said in the past that I would support a ‘clean’ lottery bill that allowed the state to join multi-state lotteries like Powerball,” Freudenthal told Planet JH. “My concern about this bill is that it really isn’t a lottery bill, it’s a gambling bill.”
Rep. Keith Gingery, R-Jackson, said he also liked the idea of the bill as it pertained to joining a multi-state lottery, but didn’t care much for the fact that the proceeds of the bill would have gone to the Hathaway Scholarship Program. He felt the program would be somewhat tainted if its budget relied on how many people played the lottery.

A Casper Star-Tribune poll in 2007, meanwhile, showed more than half of Wyoming voters support a lottery. Retailers admitted to losing customers who crossed state lines in order to buy lottery tickets. The bill was expected to generate $11 million a year for the Hathaway Scholarship fund.
HB 170 died Feb. 16 on a 35-25 vote.

“I don’t see Wyoming moving anytime in the future toward legalized gambling,” Gingery told Planet JH.

Jackson Holed ‘em
Jackson’s gambling routes can still be seen today. The recent Cutter Races feature “Calcutta” wagering along with trackside dollar bets. Calcutta betting is a type of auction-pool wagering covered in the 6-7-101 section of the Wyoming Statutes labeled “Gambling.” Bettors ‘purchase’ a team or contestant of an amateur event like horse/dog racing, rodeo, or golf. Calculttas are considered legal in Wyoming so long as certain stipulations are met, most notably the payout of at least 10 percent of the pot to “a bona fide charitable or benevolent purpose.”

This weekend’s 113th annual 49er Ball will include games of chance. Blackjack and poker will be available and legal because no money is involved. Chips can be cashed in for prizes, thereby eliminating any real profits for the “house.” Common door prizes and raffle prizes are also considered legal in the state of Wyoming.
Bingo is regulated at the state level. Numerous criteria must be met to make the event legal. The popular “Bingo Night” at the Elk’s Lodge is also licensed by the Town of Jackson.

The recent proliferation in and around town of card play, including ‘poker night,’ stems from both the popularity of poker ‘as scene on TV’ and a relaxation of certain state gaming and liquor laws in the past few years.

“It used to be that an establishment could not directly or indirectly profit in any way from a card game or other form of gambling,” said Tom Montoya, chief of enforcement at the Wyoming Liquor Division. “So, just selling these guys a beer or burger was in violation of the law.”

Today, bars that hold poker tournaments like Town Square Tavern, Camp Creek, and Nora’s are legit, as long as the house does not take a cut of the pot or charge a cover or entry fee. All gaming must take place in a room that is not the dispensing room and events like “Texas Hold ‘em Night” cannot be advertised.

“Social gaming between buddies or members of a club is okay,” Montoya said. “A lot of these guys have probably stretched it a little, but, technically, the guys at the table are required to know each other.”

Where else can you lose your wad?
Wyoming has one horserace track – Wyoming Downs, located outside of Evanston. Off-track betting parlors in Cheyenne, Evansville, Rock Springs, Rawlins offer racing simulcasts and legal betting on races. Wyoming Downs is regulated by the Wyoming Pari-Mutuel Commission, which leagalized gambling on horse and dog races in 1969.

Wyoming is also home to three full-scale casinos. The Wind River Casino is owned and operated by the Northern Arapaho Tribe. It is the largest and newest casino in the state – for now. Located just south of Riverton, the casino is a mile south of the tribe’s former site, 789 Bingo, which continues to operate as a smaller smoke shop and casino.

On Sept. 1, an unidentified Worland-area gambler at Wind River Casino hit a jackpot of nearly $390,000, one of the casino’s biggest recorded jackpots, according to staff. Wind River Casino policy prohibits identifying jackpot winners.
The Shoshone Rose, owned and operated by the Eastern Shoshone Tribe, is seven miles north of Lander on the Wind River Reservation. The 7,000 square foot Vegas-styled casino opened in September 2007. The Eastern Shoshone have also purchased 300 acres eight miles north of Riverton along the highway. Tribal leaders hope to build the biggest complex yet, complete with a hotel, restaurant and entertainment venue.

Casinos on reservation land became legal in 1988 when Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in response to court cases in Florida and California. The act allowed federally recognized American tribes to own and operate casinos on federal land. However, revenue generated from reservation casinos is not taxable by the State of Wyoming. Casino spokespeople say their establishments provide for the economic welfare of tribal members and the local economy, through jobs and peripheral spending. The state unsuccessfully sued to stop the Northern Arapahoe’s first casino in 2000.



Betting Sports: Ace in the “Hole” has a Gambling Tradition