Poker Nights

POKER NIGHTS
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, USA - 2025

Poker was as integral a part of cowboy life in the long winter nights as it was around a campfire in the summer. It was the most common form of entertainment - especially if those cowboys could neither read nor write. There was also, of course, a transactional element to the activity; money would meaningfully change hands.

The problem in Wyoming, however, was the state outlawed gambling in 1901. But the iconic Cowboy Bar in Jackson Hole never really bothered with that too much. In the 1940s, customers entering the bar were greeted with roulette craps and poker tables throughout the main room. Meanwhile, big stakes poker games were held in the back. It was a little Las Vegas as much as it was a watering hole and the use of space was a brazen affront to the law that played to the lore of the loosely governed wild west.

In 1951, Wyoming’s gambling crack down spread to the last stronghold - The Cowboy Bar - and when the bust came, early one Tuesday morning, there were apparently over 100 slot machines in operation. The Attorney General said of the raid “Jackson was one of the last bad spots and this probably winds it up”.

The bar would go on to reinvent itself into the iconic music and dancing venue that it is now. But fabulous stories of this illicit gambling den remain for us all to enjoy. Apparently, one roulette wheel was fixed with numerous magnets hidden under the table, which allowed the dealer to determine the winning number. The owner, at the time, was an electrician and he thought the customers were fair game.


show less