Folks would travel long distances to see a race and make a bet because, up until recently, that was the only way to experience the sport - live and in person. Franklin Roosevelt listened to the race results on a radio in the White House. Horse racing was once the most popular sport in America Presidents would attend the races. The tourists came back to town, and they’ve been coming back ever since. Futrell was keen to do it, but the clergy across the state were furious. But during the Great Depression, things got desperate for the gamblers of Hot Springs, and they pleaded with the newly elected governor, Marion Futrell, to let the owners open up the racetrack, so that the tourist trade might get a shot in the arm. The last time they tried that, back in 1907, the governor sent the militia in to stop them from racing.

Louis) weren’t interested in defying the law. And unlike the proprietors of Hot Springs’ many casinos, the owners of Oaklawn (based at the time in St. I say off and on because there was a period of time early on when betting on horses, too, was illegal in Arkansas. Hot Springs has been home to Oaklawn Park since 1904, where people have been betting on the ponies off and on for more than a century. That action was anchored by the one type of gambling that was not illegal in Arkansas: betting on horses at the racetrack.

There were no fewer than a dozen casinos in Hot Springs, with dice games, roulette wheels, and slot machines, and gamblers would travel from all over America to get in on the action. For the four decades stretching from about 1927 to 1967, the federal government considered Hot Springs to be the largest illegal gambling operation in America. Hot Springs has always been a gambling town.

Oaklawn casino ownership