From time to time there has been some discussion on this board about old "casinos" in the northeast. Obviously there has never been legal gambling anywhere in the northeast until Atlantic City (actually considered mid-Atlantic) and recently opened indian reservation casinos in Connecticut and upper New York State. Illegal joints would most likely not advertise their underground activities. Which makes match books, postcards and other items from these casinos puzzling. I recently searched eBay for casino postcards and found many of them from unlikely places.

So I decided to look up the definition of casino. According to Funk and Wagnalls Standard College Dictionary, a casino is "a room or building for public amusement, dancing, gambling, etc." So these old casinos in northeast, and else where, were most likely dance halls. Interesting.