Editing Hot Springs, Arkansas (section)

===Gangsters and illegal gambling===
[[File:Picturesque Hot Springs Central Avenue 1924.jpg|thumb|Aerial view of Hot Springs after 1925 along Central Avenue. The base of Hot Springs Mountain is in top right, behind Bathhouse Row. Part of West Mountain is on the left. The southwest edge of North Mountain is behind the [[Arlington Hotel (Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas)|Arlington Hotel]] at top.]]

[[Illegal gambling]] became firmly established in Hot Springs during the decades following the Civil War, with two factions, the Flynns and the Dorans, fighting one another throughout the 1880s for control of the town. Frank Flynn, leader of the Flynn Faction, had effectively begun paying local law enforcement officers employed by both the Hot Springs Police Department and the Garland County Sheriff's Office to collect unpaid debts, as well as to intimidate gambling rivals. This contributed to the March 16, 1899, [[Hot Springs Gunfight]]. Of the seven Hot Springs police officers who have been killed while in service of the department, three died during that gunfight, killed by deputies of the Garland County Sheriff's Office. One part-time deputy sheriff was killed also, by the Hot Springs officers.{{citation needed|date = May 2013}}

Along with Bathhouse Row, one of downtown Hot Springs' most noted landmarks is the [[Arlington Hotel (Hot Springs National Park)|Arlington Hotel]], a favored retreat for [[Al Capone]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=History of The Arlington {{!}} The Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa|url=https://www.arlingtonhotel.com/history/|access-date=June 17, 2021|language=en-US}}</ref>

Hot Springs eventually became a national gambling mecca, led by [[Owney Madden]] and his Hotel Arkansas casino. The period 1927–1947 was its wagering pinnacle, with no fewer than ten major casinos and numerous smaller houses running wide open, the largest such operation in the United States at the time{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}. Hotels advertised the availability of [[prostitute]]s, and [[bookmaker|off-track booking]] was available for virtually any horse race in North America.{{citation needed|date = May 2013}}

Local law enforcement was controlled by a [[political machine]] run by long-serving mayor [[Leo McLaughlin]]. The McLaughlin organization purchased hundreds of [[poll tax]] receipts, many in the names of deceased or fictitious persons, which would sometimes be voted in different precincts. A former sheriff, who attempted to have the state's anti-gambling laws enforced and to secure honest elections, was murdered in 1937. No one was ever charged with his killing. Machine domination of city and county government was abruptly ended in 1946 with the election of a "Government Improvement" slate of returning World War II veterans led by Marine Lt. Col. [[Sid McMath]], who was elected [[prosecuting attorney]]. A 1947 grand jury indicted several owners and promoters, as well as McLaughlin, for public servant [[bribery]]. Although the former mayor and most of the others were acquitted, the machine's power was broken and gambling came to a halt, as McMath led a statewide "GI Revolt" into the governor's office in 1948. Illegal casino gambling resumed, however, with the election of [[Orval Faubus]] as governor in 1954. Buoyed into 12&nbsp;years in office by his popular defiance of federal court [[Desegregation in the United States|desegregation]] orders, Faubus turned a blind eye to gambling in Hot Springs.<ref name="five families book">{{Cite book| title = The Five Families| publisher = MacMillan| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=5nAt6N8iQnYC| access-date = June 22, 2008| isbn = 9781429907989| date = May 13, 2014}}</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1964/03/08/hot-springs-gamblers-haven.html Hot Springs: Gamblers' Haven ''New York Times'' March 8, 1964] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170825025404/http://www.nytimes.com/1964/03/08/hot-springs-gamblers-haven.html |date=August 25, 2017 }}</ref><ref>[https://www.si.com/vault/1962/03/19/591423/the-hottest-spring-in-hot-springs The Hottest Spring for Hot Springs ''Sports Illustrated'' March 19, 1962] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170825022407/https://www.si.com/vault/1962/03/19/591423/the-hottest-spring-in-hot-springs |date=August 25, 2017 }}</ref> ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' explained the status of the casinos in 1959 as follows: "How do these places operate when gambling and mixed drinks are supposedly against the law? Simple. Every week the management appears in local court, pays its fine according to the amount of biz [business] done and goes back to open up."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Trump |first1=Glenn |title=Acts Ride In on Gravy Train as Hot Springs Takes Baths and Bets |url=https://archive.org/details/variety214-1959-04/page/n295/mode/1up?view=theater |access-date=December 19, 2021 |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |date=April 15, 1959 |page=144}}</ref>

Gambling was finally closed down in 1967 by two [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] officeholders, Governor [[Winthrop Rockefeller]] and Circuit Judge Henry M. Britt. Rockefeller sent in a company of state troopers to shutter the casinos and burn their gaming equipment. Until other forms of gambling became legal in Arkansas four decades later,<ref>Charitable [[Bingo (U.S.)|bingo]] was authorized by [[Arkansas Constitution]] {{cite web |url=http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/Summary/ArkansasConstitution1874.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=August 2, 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081221084645/http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/Summary/ArkansasConstitution1874.pdf |archive-date=December 21, 2008 }}, Amendment 84 effective January 1, 2007. Also, the [[Arkansas Scholarship Lottery]] began in 2009 under Amendment 87.</ref> [[Oaklawn Racing & Gaming|Oaklawn Park]], a [[thoroughbred horse racing]] track south of downtown, was the only legal gambling establishment in Hot Springs and one of only two in the state of Arkansas; the other was the [[Southland Greyhound Park]] dog track in [[West Memphis, Arkansas|West Memphis]]. Both Oaklawn and Southland remain in operation.<ref>{{ Cite encyclopedia |last= Hodge |first= Michael |title= Oaklawn Park Racetrack |url= http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?search=1&entryID=3636 |encyclopedia= [[Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture]] |publisher= [[Butler Center for Arkansas Studies]] at the [[Central Arkansas Library System]] |date= January 8, 2008 |access-date= December 22, 2013 |url-status= live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131224101453/http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?search=1&entryID=3636 |archive-date= December 24, 2013 }}</ref>