GALVESTON ISLAND OF CHANCE
GALVESTON ISLAND OF CHANCE By Frank E. Chalfant
There has been gambling on Galveston Island since the first man set foot on the island. The Maceos got started in the gambling business in 1923 when they opened the Chop Suey, later to become Maceo's Grotto, then the Sui Jen, and finally the Balinese Room. Large scale gambling came to an end on June 5, 1957, when Will Wilson and Jim Simpson, armed with search warrants and restraining orders closed most of the clubs down. There were no raids on June 5, most of the places closed because they knew about the restraining orders. There were a few mop-up raids in the days to follow, but the majority closed down voluntarily.
My quest to write this book began, by chance, over ten years ago when I acquired an antique slot machine. I had heard stories about the illegal gambling in Galveston, so on one of my visits to the island I thought I would try to find some of the old gambling chips. After finding a few chips, I discovered some of them had the initials TAC and BR. I knew that BR was for the Balinese Room, but I didn't know what the TAC stood for. After some research, I discovered that it stood for the Turf Athletic Club. Later I found more chips, but the problem was, there were new names and initials that were unknown to me. That meant more research, then more new chips and more research. My research continues, because I am still finding new, unidentified chips.
My research has been by taped interviews with people that have been involved in the history making events and with employees that worked in the clubs, as they were called then. The word "casino" meant gambling and even though it was wide open, gambling was not publicity advertised. It was just a known fact that most of the clubs had gambling of some type. It may have been only a few slot machines and a blackjack table, but they had it. Some of my other sources have been old magazines and news papers, city directories, books, periodicals, libraries and tax court records and other collectors. I have attempted, to best of my ability, to convey the information and identify the items as accurately as possible. When possible, I have obtained more than one verification.
I am currently president of the Greater Houston Casino Chip and Gaming Token Collectors. We hold monthly meetings in Houston, where we identify and trade newly discovered chips. We have members that also collect newer issue casino chips and tokens from around the world.
Most of the items illustrated in the book are from my personal collection. There are 182 pages, 464 photographs, of which 382 are in color. The photos are of gambling chips, old ads, the people, the buildings, and other memorabilia from 183 establishments in Galveston County and 13 around Houston and the state. The machine on the front cover belonged to Sam Maceo.
