Gangsters to Governors: The New Bosses of Gambling in America

As legalized gambling continues its march across America, governors are in the curious position of managing enterprises that have long been the dominion of gangsters. Until the 1960s, legalized gambling in modern America was limited to Nevada and racetracks, but once governors got a taste of lottery revenue, it set off a stampede for more. Today, every state except for Hawaii and Utah has some form of legal gambling.

Gangsters to Governors tells the stories of a constellation of remarkable personalities, from John Old Smoke Morrissey, the Irish-born street thug who built Saratoga into a haven for gamblers and horsemen to Howard Hughes, whose secret entry by train into Las Vegas heralded the beginning of the end of crime syndicates in the gambling capital. While governors have now supplanted these characters as the unquestioned masters of gambling, their enthusiastic embrace of more casinos, slot machines, higher betting limits, and richer lotteries is tipping the business out of balance.

Providing essential historical context for understanding the current debate over legalizing gambling and sports betting, Gangsters to Governors asks the question: is it better to maintain barriers at the risk of losing ground to organized crime, or should power be placed fully in the hands of governors who will, in all likelihood, overreach?