"It's the Union Man That Holds the Winning Hand": Gambling in Pennsylvania's Anthracite Region

Abstract

Gambling is everywhere in Pennsylvania. Turn on the television and you are enticed to visit Mohegan Sun, one of the state'scasinos. Stop by a convenience store and be lured by the dream of the next big lottery win. Pass by a local church and read a sign that invites you to "BINGO!" Talk of gambling in Pennsylvania made former governor Ed Rendell so heated that he called CBS news staffers "simpletons" and "idiots" after they questioned the extent and morality of gambling in Pennsylvania.1 Politicians, development professionals, and ordinary Pennsylvanians are betting that gambling will bring the state and its economy some much-needed luck. Throughout history, gambling has reflected major cultural values of a given society. Using the anthracite region in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries as a case study, this article shows that gambling opportunities abounded in the anthracite coal region, even as the activity came under fire. Coal-region residents gambled because gambling provided them with leisure activities, it was religiously sanctioned, and it represented a sense of control in their otherwise risky and chance-filled lives.