100 years ago in Spokane: Judges on the town side in the fair gambling flap

The Interstate Fair concessionaires took the city to court to prevent the city from closing all gambling halfway.

However, the concessionaires lost when a judge refused to issue an injunction against the city.

This was all part of an anti-gambling promotion at the show, but it broadened the definition of gambling. Many of the concessions were the usual intermediate stats offering goods or prizes to the winners. Most concessionaires claimed to be playing skill games, not gambling, but the city didn’t see it that way.

“We will arrest the operators of the games as soon as they do business,” said the city’s public safety officer.

But the president of the fair said the court’s ruling was a “terrible blow to the fair” and that most of the concessionaires simply left.

Rumors circulated that angry concessionaires were taking steps to end horse racing betting, which has always been one of the fair’s biggest attractions. If that wasn’t gambling, what was it?

From the dope beat: Police searched an opium den on Trent Alley and arrested seven suspected drug addicts. They were all fined for violating the Federal Narcotics Act.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1996: Rapper Tupac Shakur was shot and mortally wounded on the Las Vegas Strip; he died six days later.

2008: Troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed in state conservatories.