Lawmaking on the Western Frontier
Recently some historians have questioned whether gambling's excesses really ever posed a serious enough threat to warrant a blanket prohibition.
One writer asserts that only 15 homicides occurred in notorious Dodge City between 1870 and 1885, and few of these were related to gambling. Bat Masterson, the redoubtable lawman hired to tame the unruly in Dodge City, in fact killed no one in his several years as sheriff.
Although gambling was almost exclusively town-centered, contemporary newspaper reports indicate that violent crimes in Western towns such as Dodge City were relatively infrequent.
Thus, while myth implies that the frontier townsfolk were besieged by armed desperadoes who flocked to the casinos, brothels, saloons, the record suggests that this was not the case.
Even the proprietors of gambling establishments--- often the owners of more legitimate businesses as well--- were in favor of curbing gambling abuses, although clearly they did not want to prohibit gambling altogether.
When the town did become unruly from time to time, it was still easier to control the crime and violence there than out on the open plains.
Nevertheless, many Western states and territories passed stern measures against gambling. It is difficult to explain why Nebraska, which had a fairly negligible problem with gambling abuses, would adopt such radical prohibitions.
It would seem that the state never considered a more discriminating approach, such as a licensing system to regulate and restrain gambling.
Rather, it was a demonstration of political anger--- gambling was a speculative enterprise designed to take advantage of the hardworking but unwary farmer. Once again, the Jacksonian influence was seen in operation.
Farmers never came to these states in great numbers, so there was never great opposition to the gambling establishment.
Unlike the farm states, the Far West did not prohibit gambling altogether, but many legislatures did pass licensing and regulation measures.
The licensing scheme passed by the Montana territorial legislature, for instance, was typical of those enacted by most Far West states. The owner of each house where gambling tables were kept or games of chance were played was to pay a fee of $50 per month.
The fee schedule was adjusted in both 1873 and 1877, and from its increasing size one may infer that profits to gambling house operators were substantial.
The 1887 law required each operator to pay a $100 general fee every three months plus $40 per month for every Poker or Roulette table.
Indeed, the frontier towns, even with their gambling, were comparatively safe. Town entrepreneurs, interested in the steady growth of these communities, had to be assured of an orderly, stable place to conduct business.
