A dark side of Dixie: illegal gambling in Northern Kentucky, 1790-2000

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to uncover and record the history of gambling and its accompanying vices in Northern Kentucky during the period 1790-2000. The treatment begins with a general overview of the existence of gambling and corruption in the region from the town's founding, identifying the key characteristics that established Northern Kentucky as regional vice center. It then details the ways in which gambling developed through the years from loosely organized, locally-run gaming halls into well-funded and strategically managed branches of nationally syndicated crime organizations. In its final chapters, this history describes the fantastic series of events that effectively drove large-scale gambling operations from the area in the 1960s and then evaluates the aftermath of that reform effort at the turn of the century. By examining private papers, in addition to news reports, oral interviews, leading reform organizations' literature and meeting minutes, police reports, court cases and governmental reports on crime, the dissertation provides the first complete academic assessment of the region's much-fabled history of vice and gambling. As Northern Kentucky citizens seek in the 21st century to reinvent themselves socially and economically, their history could serve to inform current debates regarding the moral, social and economic impact of both illicit and legalized gambling.