History of vice in Texas

The history of vice in the U.S. state of Texas has been an important part of the state's past and has greatly influenced its development. Vice activities, such as gambling and prostitution, have historically been a significant facet of both the state's culture and its economy.

Law enforcement organizations have traditionally defined vice as including prostitution, gambling, alcohol and narcotics, and pornography.^[1] These activities, though always controversial, represented major influences in the state with some enterprises at times holding legendary status. The legal status of the individual activities has fluctuated substantially over time. Additionally during some periods individual communities and public officials have been accepting of many of these activities, even when they were illegal, because of corruption, because the activities were seen as inevitable, or often because the activities were economically important.

Though these vices have existed throughout the state's history, their prevalence has varied greatly over time. Over the course of the 19th century alcohol and narcotics became heavily abused to the point that by the turn of the century alcohol abuse was listed as a significant cause of premature deaths. Gambling and prostitution came to thrive in the frontier towns, first as small enterprises but gradually becoming more organized with gambling halls and bordellos appearing in major cities. Red-light districts appeared throughout the state with San Antonio's Sporting District becoming one of the largest in the nation. The vice activities in these districts were often illegal, but city and state officials were willing to allow them provided they remained contained in their designated areas. These districts at times became havens for criminal outlaws from various parts of the lower Midwest and the Southwest.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, the Progressive Movement was rising and efforts to repress vice were growing throughout the state. First gambling and then alcohol and narcotics became increasingly repressed by state and national authorities, especially during the Prohibition era of the 1920s. Nevertheless, these activities continued and for a time even grew, enabled by the public's disdain for the new ordinances. The El Paso/Juarez region became a major tourist center because these businesses were either legal or more tolerated in Mexico than in Texas.

As in the rest of the nation, organized crime grew rapidly in Texas during the Prohibition period. But by the end of World War II most of the vice districts were officially shut down. A notable exception was the island of Galveston, the whole of which remained an open center of gambling, liquor, and prostitution until the 1950s. During the 1940s and 1950s, however, many of the major gaming figures in Texas opted to move their gambling operations to Las Vegas where gambling had recently become legal. Their investments led to many of the most important venues in Las Vegas including the Hotel Last Frontier and the Sands.