The Gambling Den Dilemma: Why Seattle’s Top Detective Fought the Ban on Vice
When City Council shut down gambling houses to clean up the streets, Detective Corbett warned that vice wouldn't disappear—it would just scatter and hide.
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.
CORBETT IS NOT PLEASED With Action of the Council Closing Gambling Houses.
Carl Willard, detective; Corbett, Powers, and Wappenslein, and Jill of Corbett, returned from Everett this morning where they were called as witnesses in the Edwards and Wilson burglary case. They were surprised to find that council had closed down on the gamblers, and many made comments thereon.
Detective Corbett was not in favor of the move at all. "Since the big frame-ups are being scattered rambling all over the city," he said, "the police will have a hard matter preventing it. We had an example of this kind when the games were closed before. Mark Jack" games were played underneath the sidewalks and in the rear of saloons. By having them in a certain district you can be effectually watched."
This 1903 debate over 'closing' vice districts mirrors modern struggles with zoning, policing, and the displacement of illicit economies. Corbett’s pragmatic argument—that shutting down visible hubs merely scatters crime into harder-to-monitor areas—remains a central tension in urban policy today.
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