Gambling Near the Throne
City hall's political elites are quietly sanctioning a new gambling house for the well-connected.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
It is understood that the municipal powers that be have determined to allow gambling to open in a quiet way—that is to say, they have determined to allow gambling to be conducted by certain gamblers who are 'near the throne' and by them alone. A certain building, not a great distance from the corner of Yesler Avenue and South Third Street, has been fitted up with electric bells, buzzers and other devices which will give warning of the approach of unwelcome guests, and here the gamblers who are 'near the throne' will conduct their quiet game without the official, though not without the personal, knowledge of the powers that be.
“The gamblers who are 'near the throne' will conduct their quiet game without the official, though not without the personal, knowledge of the powers that be.”
This report exposes the historical tension between Seattle's public moralizing and the reality of backroom 'pay-to-play' corruption. The mention of electric security systems shows that even in 1892, illicit businesses were leveraging the latest technology to stay one step ahead of the law—a precursor to modern challenges with enforcement in gray-market industries.
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