Death and the dice level all distinctions. Samuel Foote

Arkansas maintained an ambivalent attitude towards gambling. On the one hand, from the earliest days of the territory, there was a law, carried over from the Missouri Territory, that prohibited the setting up of "any table or tables, commonly called A B C, Faro bank, EO, Roulette, Equality, or any other kind of gaming table or tables, at which any game of chance shall be played for money or property. . . ." To do so would incur a fine of between $50 and $500. It was also illegal to bet at the tables. The penalty for this was $5.00. Contracts, promises etc. entered into for which the consideration was property won at the tables were void. Finally, persons who allowed such games on their premises could be fined between $50 and $500. On the other hand, many male members of the territorial elite played these games. Albert Pike recollected that while riding the circuit, he and numerous other lawyers slept in the court house building, while underneath their room, a faro bank was held every night that the court was in session. (Alsopp, Albert Pike: A Biography, p. 87.) One of the charges against Judge Benjamin Johnson in his attempted impeachment was that he had caused another judge to lose at faro.

This case involved the operation of an illegal dice bank that allowed the participants to place bets on the chances of a particular roll of the dice. On October 12, 1827, the grand jury, with Isaac Watkins serving as its foreman, returned an indictment or true bill, against Abraham Secrest. James H. Lucas was the prosecuting attorney pro tem. The indictment was founded on the information of Richard Elam and William Kinkaid. The grand jurors found that Secrest had set up his dice bank and people played dice there, making bets for "a large sum of money, to wit five dollars current money of the United States."

On May 19, 1828, Daniel Ringo, the deputy clerk for the Superior Court under clerk, David E. McKinney, issued a capias writ commanding the sheriff of Pulaski County to take Secrest into custody to ensure that he would appear before the Court in Little Rock on the first day of the October Term to answer to the indictment. Sheriff Samuel M. Rutherford executed the capias in Little Rock by taking Secrest into custody. Secrest, with Wharton Rector as his security, entered into a recognizance bond before H. Bradford, justice of the peace for Big Rock Township. This bond allowed Secrest to be released from custody until the court date, but required a $100 payment from either him or Rector if he later failed to appear and answer the charges. The capias and sheriff's return were filed in court by Daniel Ringo on August 29, 1828. The case was continued in the October Term of the court, but the case was dismissed on October 14, and Secrest was never tried on the charges. One might say that Secrest laid his bets right, and that his game of chance paid off. . . .

One who doesn't throw the dice can never expect to score a six. Navjot Singh Sidhu

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