1936

To better understand the experience, Judge Harry D. Landis of Seward, Nebraska purposefully spent 10 summer days, undercover as an inmate, in the Iowa State Penitentiary (since closed).

After, when he publicly reported his assessment of the institution, he praised it for allowing inmates to gamble — as the Nevada State Prison did — in the recreation yard on Sundays, using canteen coupons for money.

“It had all the aspects of real gambling; and these men were satisfying an innate urge of gambling cussedness in a harmless manner,” he said (Nevada State Journal, Oct. 28, 1936).