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On August 31, 1990 the Cliff Manor Inn near Tucson was raided by
various law enforcement agencies and several people were arrested along with
various gambling equipment being seized. |
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Early to Bet (1951)
The Gambling Bug causes gambling fever in anyone he bites. He
bites a cat, who becomes eager to play gin-rummy with a bulldog
for penalties. Even though he keeps losing and has to endure more
and more painful penalties, the cat is compelled by the Gambling
Bugs bite to continue playing |
| It all started back in August 1987 when the State Legislature
updated the Arizona gambling statutes. Along with adding felony penalties to
the gambling laws, they added a social gambling exemption. The intention
was to allow friends to play poker and bet between themselves on sporting
events, but it took only a few months for the idea to catch on in the bars
that open gambling was now okay. At first only poker was played, and
supposably the players supplied all of the equipment and the bar had nothing
to do with the games. Next blackjack began to appear, wherein the deal could
rotate to a player if he got a twenty-one, thus making the game equal
terms as required by the law. The gambling stayed on a relatively small
scale for the first year, with only about twenty bars allowing it and this
was mostly in the Phoenix area. |
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Gambling Lady (1934)
A businesslike syndicate runs all the gambling joints in town;
least profitable is honest Mike Lees. Under pressure to allow
cheating, Mike walks out, leaving tough-minded daughter Lady
Lee to earn a living the only way she knows. She soon becomes a
success gambling among the rich, but, falling out with |
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As can be seen from these mixed and varied rulings, the whole
question of what was legal or illegal was totally up in the air. The social
gambling industry continued to grow at an amazing rate so that by the
Spring of 1990 there were estimated to be approximately 250 bars in Arizona
conducting social gambling and the dollar amounts involved were not
small. The Phoenix Police Department estimated that in 1988 there was 547.5
million dollars wagered in the Phoenix bars offering social gambling!!! |
