Casino Gambling has been an American tradition since the pre-colonial days way before Charles Fey invented the liberty bell slot machine. The Native Americans loved to gamble back in the 1600s. Take a look at the animated infographic below!
Gambling was considered illegal in The New England Colonies in the 1600s but the Native Americans played a game similar to craps. The game was called Hubbub. The Native Americans would place a real money wager and roll five of their peach pits or bones. The avid Native American gamblers would place wagers on almost anything. They would bet on their clothing, their weapons, their supplies, sporting events, and games.
The Southern Colonies had legal gentleman’s gambling in the 1700s. In the 1800s gambling was deemed illegal. However, the California Gold Rush around 1849 set off a grandiose betting spree in California and all over the Western part of the United States.
Learn How The California Gold Rush Affected The History Of Gambling
This brought out about a new breed of illegal casino gamblers called the “Sharps”. In 1856 some of the US states started to lynch the “sharps’ / professional bettors. Charles Fey invented the slot machine in the late 1800s. This set off a new way of gambling called playing a slot machine.
The third wave of casino gambling came about in the 1900s. During the 1900s casino gambling exploded during the prohibition and the Great Depression. People went to a “Speak Easy”, to play slots for real money or any casino game. A SpeakEasy was an underground bar during the prohibition. They also used to have card games in the back of the speakeasy. They were mostly in inner cities however there were plenty in the suburban and rural areas of the east and west coast. Things started to change once the stock market crashed in 1929.
The 1930’s Through The Modern Day
During 1930 the United States Government started to crack down on the illegal gambling. Individual states like Nevada opened up their own land casinos. Las Vegas was huge for all types of entertainment. In 1970 The Garden State of New Jersey legalized casino gambling and built a city on the Atlantic Ocean called “Atlantic City” .
During the 1990s the Internet was born and online gambling exploded. Mobile gaming became popular in the United States in 2005 when Blackberry smartphones first came out. Now individual states like Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware have passed laws to make Internet casino gambling legal.
To summarize, we feel this United States Of America Casino Gambling History Infographic is a great way of communicating the history of online gambling in the United States of America. In addition to the infographic, we have explainer videos on this website. In fact, if you scroll down you should be able to click on the infographic section to explore more explainer videos and infographics.
