Mexico’s Monte Carlo and Sunset Inn

1913-1929

With various state bans on gambling and, later, a nationwide prohibition against liquor, many Americans, particularly wealthy Southern Californians, traveled to casinos in Mexican border cities to play and imbibe.

“The great hegira* is in, and already these towns are filled to the limit with throngs of the thirsty, willing to pay big sums for the pleasures banned by law on American soil,” reported the Reno Evening Gazette (March 30, 1920).

Here are some casinos that lured U.S. citizens across the border to do what they legally couldn’t at home:

In Calexico

• Owl (Tecolote) Café and Theatre: Large but unadorned, “an immense barn-like structure,” the Owl boasted nearly 40 tables for keno, faro and poker along with many roulette wheels (The Bakersfield Californian, Feb. 10, 1920). Advertisements for the gaming resort touted: “Both night and day, across the way, you will never find closed, the Owl Café.” Three Bakersfield, California, saloon and brothel owners — Marvin Allen, Frank Beyer and Carl Withington — or ABC Corp., opened the Owl around 1913. Seven years later, a fire that raged for three hours burned it down.

“The destruction of the Owl leaves one large gambling house in Mexicali, a Chinese establishment where many of the games are beyond the ken** of the average American,” reported The Bakersfield Californian (Feb. 10, 1920).

In Mexicali

• Casino de Mexicali: Following the conflagration of the Owl, Governor Esteban Cantu of Baja, California, built and oversaw in his capital city the upscale Casino de Mexicali, which also was open 24/7. Luxuriously appointed, the entire top floor was divided into suites equipped with games for wagering. Cantu charged customers an initial $250 membership tax (about $2,950 today) and a $20 monthly fee. In the first month alone, 2,000 people had joined. In its early days, the Casino de Mexicali drew about 25,000 to 30,000 Americans per day.

“The project stood Cantu an even million dollars before a wheel turned,” noted the Reno Evening Gazette (March 30, 1920).

In Tijuana

• Feria Típica: This traditional fair, the brainchild of Antonio Elosúa, offered gambling in the forms of cockfighting, bullfighting, bull baiting and horse racing along with folk dancing and Mexican food and drink. It debuted in 1915 with the slogan: “Where Everything Goes and Where Everyone Goes.”
• Monte Carlo: Elosúa opened this casino the following year. Adjacent to the Feria Típica’s open-air arena, it offered cards and dice table games, slot machines and roulette wheels. By 1917, ABC Corp. had bought out all of Elosúa’s holdings.
• Sunset Inn: ABC Corp. and Jim Coffroth built in 1920 this new $1 million casino with a balcony that overlooked the racetrack. The proprietors added to the casino’s events schedule many of the feria’s most popular exhibitions, like bullfighting.

“To lure and keep gamblers on the property, the new Monte Carlo served decent enough 75-cent meals and the dance hall stayed open all night,” wrote Lawrence D. Taylor (San Diego Historical Society Quarterly, Summer 2002).

• Agua Caliente Casino and Hotel: Another trio of Americans — Wirt G. Bowman, Baron Long and James N. Crofton — built this ornate, $10 million, Spanish-style resort that boasted a casino offering faro, roulette and baccarat, horse and greyhound racing among other recreational amenities. Four-person bungalows allowed for gambling in private. Located six miles south of the border near the hot spring, the property opened in two phases, in 1928 and 1929. During its heyday, Agua Caliente attracted a slew of tourists, among them famous Hollywood stars.

“American cupidity has enriched the gamblers of Augua [sic] Caliente more than $4 million in the past 10 months. The Old West in its heyday never saw such gambling as is being done at Augua Caliente these days,” reported The Kokomo Tribune (June 7, 1929).

The end of Prohibition curtailed the throngs of U.S. citizens visiting Mexico for pleasures.

————————

*A flight or journey to a more desirable or congenial place
**Understanding or knowledge

Sources

Today

In Ontario, Canada, the appropriately named gambling resort — Fallsview Casino — overlooks Horseshoe Falls, one of the three gushing cascades that comprise Niagara Falls.

1902-1927

Touted as “the finest clubhouse west of the Rocky Mountains,” the Casino at Tallac debuted at Lake Tahoe’s South Shore in California in July 1902 despite gambling having been illegal in the state since 1860 (San Francisco Chronicle, July 15, 1902).

“Tallac, heretofore the staidest and most exclusive resort in the Sierra Nevadas, is now the scene of nightly revelries, the clink of the glittering gold, the roll and rattle of the ivory ball and the constant hum of excited voices can be heard most any night in the big, new gambling hall, the Casino,” reported the Nevada State Journal (Aug. 4, 1905).

Elias “Lucky” Jackson Baldwin, a San Francisco realtor and stock speculator, built the summer getaway for $30,000 (about $750,000 today). The rustic casino, finished in maple and pine, contained 3.5 levels. It was furnished with gambling equipment for roulette, faro, and dice, card and other types of illegal games, which “were conducted there day and night” (Los Angeles Times, Aug. 10, 1905).

The casino’s playing cards were unique, and sets, housed in a leather case, were sold as souvenirs. The cards portrayed, for instance, natural scenes from Lake Tahoe and Fallen Leaf Lake or showed guests enjoying the on-site recreational offerings, reported the Tahoe Heritage Foundation, which supports various preservation, restoration and education projects and programs in the Lake Tahoe Basin. One contained an image of H.O. Comstock, the cards’ designer. Even Baldwin himself was pictured, as the “Jolly Joker.”

Other recreational amenities in the Casino building included four bowling alleys, billiards tables, sun parlors, wine rooms and a theatrical stage, café and ballroom. Rare for the time, the structure boasted electric lights, 500 of them. Along with the gambling house, the resort encompassed two hotels.

Gambling Was Protected

Despite their being prohibited by state law, gambling games ran wide open at the casino. Owner Baldwin had contacts in Placerville who’d notify him when law enforcement officers were on their way. It took them a while, as it was 60 miles up a mountain from there to Tallac. When alerted, Baldwin had the game tables hidden.

The local residents didn’t mind the gambling, as it “‘brings them business’ and makes Tallac a lively resort” reported the Reno Evening Gazette (Aug. 24, 1905). California officials ignored it, believing that enforcement of the law “would force the upscale resorts to move to neighboring Nevada (Aug. 3, 1905), where numerous forms of gambling, at the time, were allowed. (In 1909, however, Nevada abolished gaming; the state fully reinstated it in 1931.)

The People And The Trek
Guests and players were primarily wealthy folks of both genders from the West Coast, such as Nathaniel “Nat” Carl Goodwin, the American actor and vaudevillian.

“Women who move in high circles of society in the larger cities, dressed in fashionable clothes, and flashing rich jewelry, are often seen in the Casino, where they sit down and take a hand in some of the games, with as much freedom as some of the men,” described the Los Angeles Times (Aug. 10, 1905).

The trip to the Casino at Tallac was long. Visitors starting out in San Francisco first had to take a barge across the San Francisco Bay then a train to Sacramento. They and Sacramentans journeyed by train to Truckee. Next was a stagecoach ride to Tahoe City (at North Lake Tahoe), where they boarded a steamship that then crossed to South Lake and stopped at Yank’s Pier. Closer visitors traveled by stagecoach from California’s Placerville and Nevada’s Carson City.

The Casino’s Fate

Baldwin passed away in 1909, at which time his daughter, Anita, assumed control of the property. She ran it into the 1920s but after a sustained decrease in the number of tourists, she had all of the buildings, including the Casino, demolished in 1927.

Sources