State Lottery to Bring Back Glitter Days of Gambling

The $1-billion-plus state lottery may be the biggest gambling enterprise in California history, but it is only one chapter in a colorful saga of gambling in California ranging from rough ‘49er mining camps to glittering floating casinos off the coast.

Gambling has had a prominent role in California’s history. The ‘49ers were high-stakes gamblers both in their mines and in hundreds of Gold Rush drinking and gambling halls.

Gambling has been tightly regulated in California during all of this century. And what gambling has been legally sanctioned--horse racing, bingo and local card rooms--has been forced by law to keep a low profile, with no overt enticements to recruit new gamblers.

The lottery, which began selling tickets Thursday, is changing that, with parades, celebrities, fireworks, a laser-light show and a $20-million annual promotion budget.

Glittery Floating Casinos

The last time gambling in California had that much glitter and glamour attached to it was half a century ago, when several aggressive entrepreneurs operated floating casinos in international waters just outside the three-mile limit.

The floating casinos had a relatively brief, controversial and--for their owners--profitable life.

The first news accounts of the offshore casinos appeared in California newspapers in the mid-1920s.

Their death knell was sounded on Nov. 10, 1939, when the California Supreme Court issued a ruling that redefined the three-mile limit in a manner that allowed local prosecutors to push the casinos from calm waters in clear view of the shore out into rough seas.

The four casinos in operation at that time were barges that rode poorly in rough waters, and all four ceased operation almost immediately after the court ruling, as many gamblers did not like the longer boat ride to the casinos or the unsteady footing after they arrived.

Cruise Ship Gambling

Today, more than a dozen cruise ships operating out of major California ports are equipped with casinos that they operate in international waters during cruises to Alaska, Mexico, the Caribbean and other destinations.

None of those ships anchor permanently off the California coast like the floating casinos of 50 to 60 years ago. The closest thing to that today is a daily 13- to 15-hour cruise on a 700-passenger casino ship from San Diego to Ensenada, Mexico.

That cruise operated briefly last year as a “Cruise to Nowhere,” which hovered outside San Diego. After negotiations with the state attorney general, it was converted to a daily round trip to Ensenada to clarify its position under international commerce regulations.

Gamblers Ferried

The floating casinos of the first half of this century were quite different. Most of them anchored more or less permanently, and they ferried gamblers back and forth in small boats.

Most of them made their first appearance during Prohibition, and they offered the double attractions of casino gambling and alcohol.

Accounts of the times noted the Hollywood celebrities seen at the casinos and described the bright lights and glittery entertainment as well as roulette, blackjack, slot machines and a dozen other games.

Most of the casinos operated in Los Angeles Harbor, but one news account described a gambling barge named the William H. Harriman that anchored for several weeks in the summer of 1930 three miles off Santa Barbara. The district attorney ruled that nothing could be done legally, but the police promised to “start a campaign to keep people from the water taxis to the barge.”

In July, 1927, the Associated Press reported prosecutors fighting unsuccessfully to close “a floating gambling den” four miles offshore from Venice. About the same time, an old steamship named Tango and converted barges named Showboat and Texas opened three miles from shore in Los Angeles Harbor.

The fanciest of the lot was a live-bait barge that a paroled boot legger named Tony Cornero purchased in 1938 and spent $200,000 to remodel into a giant casino named the Rex, which anchored 3.1 miles off Santa Monica and received thousands of gamblers daily on water taxis from the Santa Monica pier.

Using the then-new concept of sky-writing, Cornero hired stunt pilots to write Rex in two-mile-high letters above downtown Los Angeles, and full-page newspaper ads promised that the “Rex surpasses all the thrills of the Riviera, Monte Carlo, Biarritz and Cannes” combined.

Barge Simply Moved

When Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Buron Fitts closed down Cornero’s water taxi service at the Santa Monica pier, the owner moved the Rex to a spot three miles off Redondo Beach and continued without missing a day’s business.

Accounts of the times say Cornero cleared $100,000 a month profit from May, 1938, until November, 1939, when the Supreme Court ruled that the three-mile limit should be measured not from the shoreline but from a line drawn between the headlands of Santa Monica Bay.