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Horse Racing as part of Anti-gambling Reform

The legislator's defection was crucial, and the bill was defeated.

In Pennsylvania, Reverend Wilbur F. Crafts, president of the International Reform Bureau, convinced a key legislator, M.A. Cassatt, to reverse his position on a pending bill that would allow racing racing in the state.

Sam Jones, a popular evangelical preacher, stumped the South exhorting his followers to rid the land of two evils--- the saloon and the race track.

A turf historian described the ensuing political fallout: 'More than one office seeker, looking for sensational planks for his platform, found them now in the slogans: Down with the Saloon! Down with Racing! Long before 1912 the southern states started going dry--- legally. But in 1906 the last horse race was run in Andrew Jackson's stronghold, Tennessee. And Georgia, Alabama, most of the neighboring states, thrust racing from their borders.'

Congressional figures, sensing the tenor of the times, banned racing from the District of Columbia. In Missouri, Joseph Folk, a gubernatorial candidate, made gambling operators who contributed heavily to his opponent.

Folk was elected and made good on his campaign promises by promptly closing the racetracks. In Texas and Louisiana, church groups supported anti-gambling legislators who subsequently banned horse racing in their respective states.

During the 1908 campaign, candidates for the California State Legislature had to declare whether or not they would support an anti-racing bill.

The president of the YMCA, noted church leaders and leading newspapers actively supported the bill.

Intimidated by these interest groups, in 1909 California legislators outlawed racetracks, despite racing's popularity. This led a social commentator to say the 'Puritanism [was] the inflexible doctrine of Los Angeles.'

By 1911, only six states allowed horse racing, and ninety-five tracks on the national circuit had closed.

The anti-gambling reforms also affected offtrack betting. By 1900, betting parlors and poolrooms depended on Western Union to supply them with up-to-date racing information. Entries, scratches, jockeys, results, and payoffs were transmitted by telegraph to poolrooms throughout the United States.

Western Union officials depended the transmission of racing news on the grounds that they were obliged to carry all messages unless they were clearly obscene. Church leaders led by Dr. Parkhurst, censured Western Union for distributing racing information.

They convinced U.S. Senator Chauncey M. Depew, a Western Union board member, to pressure company directors.

When Depew threatened to resign and hinted that he might entertain criminal action against the company for aiding and encouraging a felony, officials decided to discontinue their race wires and racing information services.

Many poolrooms closed, and offtrack betting was severely limited. Events surrounding horse racing reform in New York typify the ambiguous status of gambling during this period.

Since 1887, the state had passed legislation, such as the Ives Bill and the Percy Gray Law, that appeared to prohibit gambling at racetracks but in fact served to approve track bookmakers, as long as they were licensed by the track.