Deadwood Business... (www.deadwood.biz) A freedom statement!
Gambling... This is our biggest page... more like an entire site! (The finished page has over one hundred links to other information).
Other links about this topic can be found on the history page and others! Much money is involved...
Many dollars have been wasted too, some of it a total waste, some just double what it should have cost... Many times we found a considerable amount of bribery/deception/payoffs... etc. happening! (As well as a great deal of money found "under the table" at times.
Gambling has been going on in Deadwood almost non-stop since the gold rush over one hundred years ago. Poker games have never stopped, the slot machines have been here since they became available. Other board games, horse racing, and betting in general have been above and below the surface at times throughout the years. Almost every bar had a poker room somewhere below in the basement, or in private rooms upstairs, often running around the clock. Most were well controlled, guarded at the entrance, even supplied with food and drink. Some had their own private bar, personalized chips, and adjacent rooms for taking a nap, with or without the lady of your choice. A few of the brothels had a room for board games, a number of them had female dealers, something very rare in the old days, most knew many of these games were "rigged" for the house. Men were often quoted as saying they would rather lose to these women than play elsewhere at better odds! Other poker rooms were multipurpose areas with unique items that could be folded up during a raid by outsiders, (the Franklin Hotel has an example on display... a round poker table that folds up to look like a fancy large chair in a matter of seconds). Deadwood became quite famous during prohibition for running "speak-easy" type operations, where every wicked vice could be served without leaving a well guarded door. Many a deer hunter from the big city have come to Deadwood for both kinds of deer, (the two legged ones, and those with four). Often a father would bring along a son for his first deer, among other things! As late as 1991 we had requests for that kind of action, a few local hunters still bag the animal for those coming here, as they cannot tear themselves away from the fun long enough to take a walk in the forest. A few jokes surfaced years ago about wives hiding things the men needed while on their trip in their hunting boots or the gun cases to see if they actually found them... this does not happen in Deadwood, (we check to make sure). Those coming on hunting trips the last ten years or so almost always bring their own women along, or meet them here by previous arrangement. (We have very few girls still remaining that continue to be "kept" by married men, and this web page will not speak of them, or include interviews at this time... as they say, "not enough people are dead yet," like me for instance... you must wait a while longer to read more details on that practice).
In the beginning days of legal gambling, (November of 1988)... It was decided to keep it as a very low-keyed operation, (just a sideline practice to encourage more tourism in the bars and a few other places). There was a five dollar limit, a few simple poker games, some blackjack tables... no other board games, bookie's, racing, or the like! We also allowed no more than fifteen slot machines under each roof and they had to be attached to another permit selling something! (It was determined by a very complete survey that it would increase tourism by about 7% and bring in several thousand more dollars of revenue each summer, to at least the five bars in town). A few years later... and one hundred beer-bars later... we figured out we had a problem! Every building in the business district had increased from ten to one hundred times it's value, taxes each year were more than most had paid in the past for renting a store downtown. It was impossible to sell donuts, shoes, clothes, or any other item... and pay the tax on the space those items required with the profit from any of them.
What happened next was a "token" sales area with a rack of rubber tomahawks or tee-shirts on a wall somewhere, surrounded by gambling devices. One very proud old woman running her past husband's hardware store held out... she had a sign on the front door saying "don't even ask," she attracted national attention, Reader Digest even did a story on her! Many store owners took the money and ran, all the way to Arizona, some stayed and dealt with the wicked behavior that is attracted by tremendous profits and drunken behavior. A few were not even affected by it, (very few... about seven by my last count), and they continue to this day with no change in their operation! (About the only ones worth mentioning are several jewelry shops located right in the middle of this mess on main street, they have enough sales between the locals and the big winners to remain open, but they could sell out and be better off still to this day). A few other places away from main street remain, (on the wrong side of a busy four lane highway with few stop lights), but they do not have much business until the town is so crowded that people are forced away! It is a sad situation and nobody cares, nothing will ever be done to fix it as those who have the power to correct it are already too corrupted by the money from the last fifteen years! (Both above and below the table, in fact, most of their time is spent trying to figure out how to make all that money under the table declared legal, so they can start paying tax on it again). Someday the IRS is going to figure out the amount of money that has simply disappeared in the past and start looking for it, after all, it is now in the ten's of millions, and will soon reach the hundred's of millions...
What happened to all this "dirty" money from gambling profits?
That is a good question... I wondered that myself for a while, then I began to track it, amazing things were discovered. (Very little of it remains in town in fact, much of it is never spent here). It cannot be reintroduced into the local economy, that way nobody knows about it right? We have so much money legally made here, that "turns" four to seven times before completely gone that nobody would notice if some was missing right?? WRONG... way too much money is missing! And it continues to show up at times too, fancy cars driven by rich college kids home for the holidays, campers and boats in storage, winter homes down south, very profitable businesses in other areas, some even close by... the list goes on!
I have some interesting video shot twenty five years ago, (of many people who really did not know me very well then). I have interviews with young kids who had very limited goals in life taken when I was the president of the PTA and caring for their well-being, some video of their parents and homes as well... It is interesting what you see from the clothes they wore and the cars they drove then too! I have video of the VFW folks when I was voted the Judge Advocate... (back when most people were poor). Their outlook for the future was different then, it was also interesting the difference between the viewpoint of the Vietnam vets apposed to the local boys from all other wars!
I also discovered many things about a few local people involved in the Catholic Church... especially after I became the Grand Knight of the local Knights of Columbus. (I knew what they had, what they made, what they spent on the church, and what they hid from God, also what they did to make that right). Most of the people did not make a big deal out of it either, and there was not that much money involved at the time anyway! Once the girls were gone and gambling came in a big way, those people began to make a great deal of money, gave much less to the churches, and became more careful in the ways they hid the "other" money from God... I became know as a rat or a spy and stepped down, my wife then became the president of the women's organization at the church and continues to this day. (Although I attend nothing public, we still do all the maintenance for the old catholic school, the Nun's home, the Priest and housekeeper, and we clean the church weekly... the secrets of many rich people are still given up to us by those who cannot lie and will not be a part of such nonsense). The information I have gathered over these years would surprise even those involved with the mafia. The wind-fall profits of some are amazing, especially the profits of those "in the family" who have a business elsewhere. The amount of money involved is tremendous, the way they did it is shocking to some, I would be murdered on the spot for posting it here right now too... Stay tuned...
This page deals mostly with what we know for sure, much information still needs to be gathered, help us if you can! All comments here will be kept in complete confidence... send the mail from a public place like a library or school, do not trust us even, we may be taken over, it could be traced back to you if they find our remote server!
Some correction is still being done to this page... If you have something important you want to be included in our writing on this subject this is your chance to give input before we post it. If you disagree with something after it is linked, please do not be afraid to comment as well, all mail will be discussed with our people, changes will be made!
We'd also like to know what you think about the entire Deadwood web site so far. Please leave your comments so we can share your thoughts with other visitors. If you know of shady dealings, (and can verify it by two separate sources), tell us... we will check it out and post it after it is confirmed!