High Rollers

Gambling in the 19th century ranged from lotteries seen as “civic responsibility” on the East coast (the proceeds built prestigious universities such as Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Princeton) to Mississippi riverboat games and finally, to licensed gambling establishments on the frontier West. In 1855, the boomtown Columbia (now a California State Historical Park) boasted of 143 active faro banks, joining the ranks of states and cities throughout the West that were capitalizing on gambli