18th Century American Gambling

The first games of chance brought to the New World were probably played by the sailors who crewed Columbus' three ships.

The Spanish and the Portuguese, in addition to bringing dice and cards with them to the Americas, also brought horses and subsequently, introduced horse race betting.

Some of the horses escaped captivity and eventually found their way into the Great Plains. After a time, their progeny became the property of the Plains Indians who were excellent riders and loved to gamble for herds of ponies and horses.

Those who lost often raided neighboring tribes which led to wars over the ownership of the animals.

In the same spirit, by the end of the 1600s, almost every county seat held a lottery. Revenues from lotteries were responsible, in part, for the founding of many institutions of higher learning, like William and Mary, Yale, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia, to name a few.

Besides lotteries, other forms of gambling caught on quickly. Cockfighting was popular, especially in the southern colonies, as were bear-baiting and dogfighting. Cards and dice were brought over by the Dutch and English.

Horse racing caught on quickly, but was generally limited to the more well-to-do colonists.

Almost every household in Colonial America owned decks of playing cards. George Washington was a confirmed card player and Benjamin Franklin both printed and sold playing cards. Decks of cards sold so well that the British passed the infamous Stamp Act, in addition to taxing tea, imposed a tariff on every pack of cards sold.

Not all colonists embraced gambling so enthusiastically. The New England colonists considered gambling a sin and imposed fines and physical punishments on unfortunate transgressors.

This attitude was reflected in the anti-gambling bias promulgated by the American judicial system after the Revolutionary War. Gambling statutes were largely under the jurisdiction of each state, however, and most states adopted a live-and-let-live attitude regarding gambling.

This acceptance sprang from economic necessity among the colonies while they were still under English rule. Gambling was allowed for the purpose of financing both public and private works such as buildings, roads, dams, colleges, hospitals, and churches.

Lotteries were probably the most popular method of raising monies for specific projects. Ben Franklin promoted a lottery to raise funds for supplies to defend Philadelphia from the French and Italians.

All manner of people bought lottery tickets despite their official illegal status. This attitude prevailed during and after 1776 to the point where state-franchised lottery companies were formed, despite statutes against gambling in any form.