“Police raiding squad inventory articles seized during raid at One Boylston St., race track bookmaker’s quarters” (1932) | Leslie Jones | Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection

THROWBACK: 7–11 24–7

Headlines from when Boston was essentially one giant casino, grade schools included

RESEARCH BY PETER ROBERGE

Headline hub that Boston is, the center of our local news storm tends to shift rapidly. Especially these days. But while fights over casino rights haven’t attracted much daily ink this summer, you can always count on controversies around gambling to resurface sporadically, sort of like a rash.

As a city with a bipolar past full of both Brahmin exceptionalism and exceptional barbarism, it should come as no surprise that Boston’s had a bittersweet relationship with cardinal vices like card games. In these parts, political figures have historically played the role of the house, typically winning more than not while voting suckers pick lint. With the lottery and dice games on the brain, we dug up some choice clips that suggest the Commonwealth has always been a government front for an elaborate gambling scheme.

First we found a trend piece about craps in the February 1, 1892 Boston Daily Globe that reads like a blip about Pokemon GO! on HuffPost. The writer attempts to explain how the…