Reuben Parsons was an American gambler and underworld figure in New York during the early-to mid 19th century. He was the first man, along with partner John Frink, to establish illegal gambling and policy banks. Parsons was considered the top gambler, known as the "Great American Faro Banker", and held control over illegal gambling in the city for more than two decades. His operations are considered the first major criminal organization, although neither centralized nor having a corporate-like structure, its system remaining in place for well over a century and surviving in various forms up until as late as the late 1980s.

Biography

A native of New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

, Parsons originally arrived in New York City with the intention of starting his own business. He lost the small fortune he had brought with him, several thousand dollars, in a gambling house soon after his arrival. Impressed by how quickly he had lost his money, he instead decided to open his own gambling house and used his entrepreneurial skills to build a successful gambling empire by financing other gamblers. He also differed from typical gamblers by being "dressed plainly and was unassuming in manner". Parsons also refrained from publicly appearing at his establishments, allowing John Frink to handle the day-to-day operations, and never gambled after his first experience.

From 1840 until the 1860s, he and Frink controlled around 350 gambling parlors in Manhattan as well as employed a network of spies and informants. Their organization lacked any formal structure however, as least compared to the organized crime

Organized crime

Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...

 syndicates seen during the next century, and most operators retained independent control of their own establishments. Parsons used his income from gambling which he invested in real estate and was eventually able to retire. His operations were continued by Zachariah Simmons

Zachariah Simmons

Zachariah Simmons was an underworld figure involved in running policy games in New York during the late 19th century. Supported by the Tweed Ring, he took over the policy rackets from Reuben Parsons and John Frink following the end of the American Civil War...

, supported by the Tweed Ring, who ran illegal gambling and the "policy rackets" during the post-Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 era.

Further reading

• Asbury, Herbert. Sucker's Progress: An Informal History of Gambling in America from the Colonies to Canfield. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1938.
• Chafetz, Henry. Play the Devil: A History of Gambling in the United States from 1492 to 1955. New York: Potter Publishers, 1960.
• Cornell Law Project. The Development of the Law of Gambling: 1776-1976. Washington, DC: National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, 1977.