A Police Raid on the Iroquois Club
Detectives break up a poker game at the Iroquois clubrooms, highlighting ongoing tensions between gambling houses and city law enforcement.
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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.
There was a sensation among poker players when Detectives Flannagan and Wilson raided the Iroquois clubrooms in the Washington block, arresting proprietor Ira Wilkinson and three others. Officers seized a table and 210 chips as evidence. One man recently complained of losing $100 at the rooms, and police noted that the gamblers were using a 'short deck' to improve their odds. Wilkinson, who had been warned previously, argued that the business was a private 'club.' In a separate incident, a young man named William M. Brown reported being 'robbed' in a poker game at Clark's place on Pacific Avenue.
“Wilkinson was notified last week he would have to pay $100 fine if he proposed to run a game. He did not think he should be fined, as he maintained it was a 'club.'”
The distinction between a 'private club' and a gambling den is a recurring trope in the history of Seattle and Tacoma’s nightlife regulation. This 1892 report highlights the early efforts of police to curb vice in the city's commercial districts, a precursor to the long-standing debate over gambling and nightlife regulation in Washington.
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