Gambling in the Shadows of the Butler Hotel
Police seize a worn-out craps table, but the high-stakes games continue unabated.
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.
The police have succeeded in capturing an old and nearly worn-out craps table from Johnny Lonaultus’s gambling house, but the one that is in constant use still remains in charge of the gamesters, and they are not at all disconcerted. They can afford to lose old furniture occasionally when compensated by an unrestricted monopoly a great portion of the time. The poker game running in the Butler Hotel also seems to be serenely hidden from the police force, although no one else has any difficulty in finding it.
“They can afford to lose old furniture occasionally when compensated by unrestricted monopoly a great portion of the time.”
This vignette highlights the early Seattle cat-and-mouse game between police and underground gambling establishments. The Butler Hotel, once a central fixture of the downtown scene, was a known locus of both high society and high-stakes vice.
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