Gambling in the old west

The discovery of gold in California and the resulting rush of 1849 attracted many of the Mississippi River boat gamblers to San Francisco, considered the new El Dorado of the West. By the early 1850s Portsmouth Square, in the center of San Francisco, was ringed by large gambling houses where the doors never closed and enormous sums changed hands over the gambling tables. One of the most popular gambling halls was the Parker House. It was originally built by Robert A. Parker as a hotel, but it was quickly converted to a casino as the gambling craze swept in San Francisco during this period. A large room downstairs contained three tables for Faro, two for Monte, one for Roulette and a seventh for any other game desired. Professional gamblers paid $10,000 a month for the privilege of conducting their games in this room. A smaller room behind the bar went for $3,500 a month. Jack Gamble, an appropriately named sporting man, leased the entire second floor for $60,000 and outfitted all the rooms for games of chance. It was estimated that at the peak of the California Gold Rush upward of half a million dollars was stacked on the tables of the Parker House on any given day.