ust as Las Vegas had its era of Bugsy Segal and Chicago had Al Capone, so Southern California had the romantic period of the gambling ships of the 1920s and 30s. It was according to one historian, “the most colorful in Los Angeles history,” and its most colorful figure was Tony Cornero.
According to an article published by Jim Specht in the March 6, 1980 Los Angeles Times, the gambling ships began appearing off the coast of the City of Angels in the late 1920s. The ships were floating casinos, with cards, craps, roulette and bingo.
Gambling was illegal in California at that time, but it was not a federal crime. This meant that as long as the ships stayed outside of what was then the 3-mile limit, the “criminal” activity could continue unabated. They were so brazen in their defiance of the authorities that they advertised on the radio and newspapers, and biplanes crawled across the sky, writing about them in smoke.
Water taxies would take hundreds of customers from Long Beach, Santa Monica and Redondo Beach. Due to a loophole in the law that was eliminated in the 1940s the water taxies could take patrons to the gambling ships that were operated by foreign owners with foreign crews. Today such transportation to a gambling ship is illegal.
Despite the seeming legality of the practice, local law enforcement tried to shut down the ships in court, and even sent police on raids that were themselves of dubious legality. Nothing that they did worked. For more than two decades the ships flourished.
Cornero operated the Rex from Santa Monica Bay for a year and a half, ending in November of 1939. This floating casino had 300 slot machines, roulette wheels, dice tables and a bingo parlor that seated 500. It also had fine dining and a bar. Like Las Vegas would do later on, the Rex catered to the middle-class patron rather than the Diamond Jim Bradys. According to reports, Cornero’s Rex served 850,000 patrons during the 18 months it operated.
On August 1, 1939, state and local law enforcement, including hundreds of deputy sheriffs launched a raid on the Rex and several other gambling ships. They seized thousands of dollars. None of the ships resisted, except for the Rex.
Cornero barricaded the Rex’s gangway with a steel door and fought off boarders with several fire hoses. After a nine-day siege Cornero surrendered.
Many years later, after World War II, Cornero tried again, this time with a ship called the Lux. However, authorities shut him down in record time. He gave up on gambling boats, and shifted his interests to Las Vegas, where he helped found the
Stardust Resort & Casino. He died in 1955 playing at the craps table.
