Hundreds of years before the era of online casinos, there lived a man whose name still rings a bell among gamblers or movie lovers. The legendary John Henry “Doc” Holliday. Why doc? Well, his early career definitely doesn’t have much in common with casinos and gambling. He was a… dentist, born in 1851 in Griffin, Georgia.

Like it often happens with strong people life wasn’t mild to Doc – aged only 23 he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Probably because of that he moved to Dallas, Texas. But Texas was and is famous not only for its hot climate, but also with gambling activities. (The state is considered birthplace for Texas Hold’em poker game – which many define as the jewel in the crown among all casino and card games). Pretty soon Holliday was enchanted by cards and games and his sharp mind and great fearlessness turned him into a legendary professional gambler, involved in some of the biggest game in (and also out of) town. It is believed that he played mainly poker.

Death Spot of Doc Holliday. Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Recognizing the appeal of Glenwood Springs' most famous dead celebrity, the downtown Summit Canyon Mountaineering store has stenciled onto the bottom of each of its front doors: 'Doc Holliday died here, November 8, 1887.' Tyler was head of a gambling group called The Slopers. In mid-February 1881, he pulled a gun on a dealer at the Oriental, trying to take over the game. That was when Earp disarmed Tyler, grabbed him by the ear and threw him out—while Doc Holliday kept Tyler’s friends at bay with a pistol. Doc Holliday commits his first murder, killing a man for shooting up his New Mexico saloon. Despite his formidable reputation as a deadly gunslinger, Doc. Doc Holliday Casino. Doc Holliday never owned this casino during his life. It is said to be named after him in honor of his post-death visits! Doc Holliday died and was buried in Glenwood Springs, CO, but he paid many visits to Central City, CO during his life. The building that houses the Doc Holliday casino used to be Goldnen Rose Annex. Doc Holliday Casino - Cripple Creek, Colorado Doc Holliday's Casino: Doc Holliday's Casino is located in downtown Central City on historic Main Street. This is a Central City original casino. It's changed locations once - it used to be on the corner near the Teller House.

And probably it was poker that was common between him and Wyatt Earp – another legend from the Wild West. The two of them often hanged out together and were shoulder to shoulder in more than one deadly gunfights. Apart from serious gambling talent, Doc was said to have another great talent – he was among the few “fastest guns” to live back then.

The legend about these two is so strong that their adventures were bases for many movies, including “Tombstone”, “Purgatory” and a lot more.

Back to our days – in 2008 a new casino was opened in Colorado. Its name? DOC HOLLIDAY CASINO.

Interested in this legendary gambler? Find more about Doc’s biography.

As towns sprouted in the 19th-century American West — outside Army forts, at river crossings along wagon trails, in mining districts and at railheads — some of the first structures built were recreational facilities. Recreation for the almost totally male population inevitably meant the triple-W vices of the frontier: whiskey-drinking, whoring and wagering.

Saloons, brothels and gambling halls would appear almost overnight. In the early camps, the structure might be only a lantern-lit, dirt-floored tent, the bar simply a board stretched between two whiskey barrels, the prostitution facility just a cot in a wagon bed for the use of a single female strumpet, and the gambling outfit only a rickety table, a few chairs and a greasy, dog-eared deck of cards. As the towns grew and prospered, these primitive facilities were replaced by one-story wooden buildings with false fronts to make them appear even larger. And if the community developed into a city, saloons were housed in imposing brick buildings with ornate bars, huge back-bar mirrors and brilliant chandeliers. Some brothels became elegantly furnished parlor houses with attractive ‘boarders’ managed by madams whose names were famous throughout the West. The best-known sporting men of the West presided over and patronized gambling houses that were often the most impressive and elaborately accoutered structures of the cities.

The popularity of gambling in the West can be attributed mostly to the fact that all who left the relative safety and comfort of the East to seek fame and fortune on the frontier were, in a sense, natural-born gamblers. In the early West, gambling was considered a profession, as legitimate a calling as the clergy, the law or medicine.

During the 25-year period prior to the Civil War, gambling flourished in the towns along the Mississippi from New Orleans to St. Louis and was a staple attraction on virtually every riverboat. This golden age of gambling produced some of the most memorable practitioners of the art — legendary professionals like Charles Cora, J.J. Bryant, Jimmy Fitzgerald, John Powell, Charles Starr and Napoleon Bonaparte ‘Poley’ White.

One of the popular gambling games of the 19th century was a bluffing game that evolved into American poker. Another, vingt-et-un (twenty-one), introduced into the United States through the predominately French community of New Orleans, we now call blackjack. Still another was Mexican monte. But undoubtedly the most popular gambling game in the West was faro, which drew its name from the Egyptian pharaohs depicted on the back of the cards.

The foremost faro player on the Mississippi was Italian immigrant Charles Cora. After winning $85,000 and breaking several faro banks in New Orleans, Vicksburg and Natchez during one six-month period, he was banned from many resorts. J.J. Bryant, perhaps the best-known professional gambler on the lower Mississippi, lost thousands to Cora.

Jimmy Fitzgerald and Charles Starr were early standard-setters of the sartorial splendor that became a hallmark of the 600 to 800 professional gamblers plying their trade on the river. Their expensive black suits and boots were offset by snow-white ruffled shirts and dazzling brocaded vests. Ostentatious jewelry advertised the gambler’s prosperity. Huge rings adorned his fingers. A stickpin with a large stone, called a ‘headlight,’ sparkled on his chest. In a pocket of his ‘flowerbed’ vest was an enormous pocket watch adorned with precious jewels and attached to a heavy golden chain that draped across the gambler’s chest.

The discovery of gold in California and the resulting rush of 1849 attracted many of the paddle-wheel and Mississippi River town gamblers to San Francisco, the new El Dorado of the West. By the early 1850s Portsmouth Square, the center of the City by the Bay, was ringed by large gambling houses where the doors never closed and enormous sums changed hands over the tables.

There was the Parker House, originally built by its owner, Robert A. Parker, as a hotel, but quickly converted to a casino as the gambling craze swept San Francisco. A large room downstairs contained three tables for faro, two for monte, one for roulette and a seventh for any other game desired. Professional gamblers paid $10,000 a month for the privilege of conducting their games in this room. A smaller room behind the bar went for $3,500 a month. Jack Gamble, an appropriately named sporting man, leased the entire second floor for $60,000 and outfitted all the rooms for games of chance. It was estimated that at the peak of the California Gold Rush upward of half a million dollars was stacked on the tables of the Parker House on any given day.

Flanking the Parker House on either side were two other famous resorts, Samuel Dennison’s Exchange and the El Dorado Gambling Saloon, owned by partners James McCabe and Thomas J.A. Chambers. Other houses on Portsmouth Square were the Verandah, the Aguila de Oro, the Bella Union, the Empire, the Arcade, the Varsouvienne, the Mazourka, the Ward House, the St. Charles, the Alhambra, La Souciedad, the Fontine House and the Rendezvous. As indicated by the several French names, some of these establishments were owned and operated by gambling syndicates from France, a country long known for its love of gaming.