Gambler (Operators/Players): Donation – Gambling-History.com https://gambling-history.com History of Gambling in the U.S. Tue, 10 Mar 2026 15:42:04 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://gambling-history.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/cropped-Kings-Castle-Chip-32x32.png Gambler (Operators/Players): Donation – Gambling-History.com https://gambling-history.com 32 32 Quick Fact – Tainted v. Pure Money https://gambling-history.com/quick-fact-tainted-v-pure-money/ https://gambling-history.com/quick-fact-tainted-v-pure-money/#respond Sat, 15 Jun 2019 16:16:06 +0000 https://gambling-history.com/?p=4759

Selig Zoo archway

1938

Gambler Tony Cornero Stralla offered to donate a day’s worth of revenue from his Southern California casino boat, the Rex, to Zoo Park at 3800 Mission Road in Los Angeles.

The attraction, then owned/operated by the California Zoological Society and formerly the Selig Zoo, was teetering on bankruptcy and its animals were facing starvation.

However, the group refused Cornero Stralla’s offer on the grounds it was “inadvisable to mix gambling with pennies contributed by school children” (Nevada State Journal, Oct. 14, 1938). Indeed, youths were donating what they could to save the zoo.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons/University of California—Los Angeles Library, Los Angeles Times photographic archive

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