Caricature of gambling showing a number of men and one woman at an early roulette table ca 1800 games of chance came to the british american colonies with the first settlers attitudes toward gambling varied greatly from community to community but there were no large scale restrictions on the practice at the time. Lang arne k sports betting and bookmaking an american history rowman littlefield 2016 longstreet stephen win or lose a social history of gambling in america 1977 meyer arendt klaus and rudi hartmann eds casino gambling in america origins trends and impacts 1998 obrien timothy l bad bet the inside story of the glamour glitz and danger of americas gambling . Three historical chapters trace the presence of gam bling in america from the public lotteries of the colonial era to new york casinos run by crime syndicates in the early twentieth century to the rise of gambling as a legitimate industry in nevada and atlantic city in the 1940s and 50s. A brief history of gambling in the united states in the early years of american history gambling was quite popular in the colonies as america was known as at that time being part of great britain prior to the american revolution while the extent of gambling back then differed by region with some locales embracing it more than others there