The Great Nickel Counterfeit Bust
A local slot machine monopolist calls in the Secret Service to stop a gang from minting slugs to cheat his own gambling machines.
On information presumably furnished by F. H. Baldie, a slot machine monopolist, secret service men today arrested Ed Stickney, Charles Harmon, M. P. Anderson, and A. F. Brown for making counterfeit money, allegedly to be used in playing the city's slot machines. The four men were caught in the home of Charles Harmon at 1509 South C street, where they were using plaster of paris molds and molten metal to create fake coins. When officers raided the home, some of the fake coins were still hot. It is said Stickney and his associates made a practice of minting slugs to 'work' the machines, and when Baldie’s own system of bouncers failed to stop them, he called in federal authorities.
“The method used was simple and showed that they were inexperienced in the business.”
This story reveals the wild-west nature of early 1900s gambling in Tacoma. Even then, the 'monopolist' didn't hesitate to leverage federal power to protect his own lucrative, if legally dubious, slot machine operations.
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