The Tycoon Saloon Heist: A Laborer's Fight for His Wages
After being swindled out of his savings by a rigged card game, a Skagit County laborer takes on the city's saloons in a rare civil suit for restitution.
The story, cleaned up
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Ludvig Hovig, a Skagit County laborer who came to Seattle about a week ago, visited the Tycoon saloon and found himself in a disastrous situation. He claims he was forced into a rigged game of cards, eventually losing his money and being pressured to sign over an $800 certificate of deposit. He later demanded the $750 balance, which the men refused to provide. Hovig has now started a civil suit against Erail Morven, Henry Quinn, Matt Reese, Joseph Young, and Charles Bogan, alleging fraud and force, and has filed attachments against their property. While Morven admitted to receiving the funds, he denies involvement in the gambling. Meanwhile, warrants for grand larceny have been issued for the men; Reese was jailed, but the others are suspected of fleeing the state to escape charges.
“He says that he was forced into a friendly game of cards, and becoming involved, he agreed to give the men he was playing $50 if they would let him go.”
The precariousness of the transient laborer in 1892 Seattle—often preyed upon by predatory gambling operations in the downtown core—mirrors modern concerns regarding the exploitation of vulnerable populations within the city's shifting housing and economic landscape.
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