The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1911-01-20
PASSING OF THE GAMBLER IN
OKLAHOMA NOW IS CERTAIN

Oklahoma City, Jan. 16.-With the
passage of the proposed new anti
gambling law, making the mainten-
ance of a game of chance felony, the
gambling gentry of the country will
have made their last stand. When an
air-tight lid has been screwed down
in Oklahoma, there will be no place
left for the three-card man, the manip-
ulator of the ivory roulette ball and
the bank dealer to ply his trade.
At no time since Oklahoma was
opened to settlement has gambling
They were not disappointed. "Busi-
ness" was good in the early days, and
has not been many weeks since the
whirr of the spinning ball and the
cries of the crap dealer could be heard
in half hundred or more places.
Gambling is nearer closed in Okla
homa now than ever before, but there
are still places, notably Ardmore, the
home of Governor Lee Cruce, where
the games of chance are never closed,
where the "chumps" are "cool pack
ed" and there is no limit to the stakes.
contributed to the talent" that found
its way to the ungrazed fields.
Several years ago when the reform
wave swept over the country, taking
saloons and the various forms of vice
down before it, the gambling man felt
his territory narrowing. The game
"pinched out" in Montana and Idaho
and now Nevada has placed the ban
on the goddess Chance. Several years
ago Arizona and New Mexico drove the
gamblers across their borders and the
lottery business caused the ending of
"big play" in Louisiana. Oklahoma
was the only place left and they flock
ed to the place they felt was less re-
stricted.
Oklahoma's wild days are over, The
asst traits of the woolly west are dis.
lappearing. The morale of the new
state has reached a higher plane as
the better class of immigrants have
come to make it their home.
What will become of the gamblers
|now? None of them seems to know
They do not know where to go or what
, to do. Few, if any, of them know {
trade or have means of gaining a live
Iihood except by manual labor. Ant
the gambling man, used to the lux
uries that come with easy money" is
averse to anything partaking of The
, nature of arduous toll.
This is the finish, said one of tht
pioneer gamblers of Oklahoma City
in discussing the situation. "The da!
of the gambler is over. Society il
against him and with just cause
He produces nothing and is leecl
upon any community, Turing men t,
ruin and doing nothing that will ad,
, to the welfare of humanity. There ar
thousands of gamblers, but the higl
a play 10 ONCl ell1u IASlC 10 hOIhAh6 AOA
but for them to seek some new mean
! of making living. Few gambler
have saved anything from their wir
Inings. There are 500 of the 'profes
. sion in Oklahoma City today unabl
!. to turn a trick and without funds"
, Perhaps no state in the union ha
seen the class of gambling that ha
= been done in Oklahoma. Practical
all the knowledge guys" of the ives
and south and north are here. Ther
are gamblers. near gamblers, an
those who live by aiding them in the
a nefarious vocation.
j The suggestions of Governor Cruz
in his first message to the legislatul
will no doubt be carried out. One bi
il has already been introduced whic
:, provides for a prison term of from OF
2, to three years for conducting gar
It bling house, while another bill pr
e vides a minimum fine of $3.50 and
k maximum penalty of two years in Il
s state penitentiary and a fine of $10O
y Sentiment against open gambling b
r crystalized and one of these bills
actically sure Of passage.