Gambling in 'Little Las Vegas'

Sixty years ago, Okaloosa County was a gambling haven.

In a 1949 article, the Tampa Tribune portrayed the Fort Walton Beach area as a "little Las Vegas" where gambling was rife, and authorities let high-rollers and penny-ante players have their fun despite the law. Historian Henry Dobson said in "History of Okaloosa County," that during the 1940s, illegal slot machines were operated openly within sight of the county courthouse.

"Every place had a slot machine in it, even Joe and Eddies," remembers area historian and author Tony Mennillo.

In Destin, then as now, fishing was more popular.

"There was not a lot over here," Destin resident and local historian Cyron Marler told The Log. "Destin was still mostly fishing - if you wanted to do anything else, you had to go over to Fort Walton."

Gambling in Okaloosa County dates back to at least 1937, when a state law banning slot machines was openly violated in the area. Leonard Hutchison, in "History of the Playground Area," said Fort Walton Beach became the center because it had good roads, summer visitors and places to drink.

The Shalimar Club and the Magnolia Club were the upscale end of local gambling: The Shalimar featured Latin music and expensive entertainment, and the Magnolia Club's owners had put $100,000 into it by the time it opened. The clubs drew guests such as Gregory Peck, when his film "Twelve O'Clock High" was filmed on Eglin Air Force Base.

The Tampa Tribune portrayed both clubs in 1949 as Florida's coolest gambling dens outside Miami, with fortunes changing hands nightly and officers turning a blind eye to the lawbreaking going on. Dobson said the clubs generated $300 a year for each gambling room, plus $100 for each machine used outside the rooms.

More down-home, low-key games took place at Roberts Drug Store near the Indian Temple Mound, which at one time boasted the town's single telephone, Dobson says. In-between shooting the breeze, visitors played poker and shot dice.

Most county residents, according to the Tribune, didn't object to the gambling. The late Fort Walton Beach resident Evelyn Rosenbleeth told a local magazine 20 years ago that the gambling scene was more laid-back than the Tribune made it sound: Airmen from Eglin Air Force Base would lose their money one night, come back the next and win it back.

What gambling did take place in Destin was closer to the Roberts Drug Store scale than the Shalimar, according to long-time resident Jerry Najarian. When the American Legion met at the Community Center, he said, "they'd shuffle cards and play blackjack, about 10 cents-a-bet stuff.

"My wife was really against gambling," Najarian went on. "One night I got home rather late - it was the first time I sat in and I won $17. She was really mad, she said it was dirty money."

Retired boat captain Reddin Brunson agreed with Marler that the real gambling action had been over to the west.

Even there, it didn't last. After the Tampa Tribune article, Crestview businessmen affiliated with Florida's Better Government League began pushing the state to end gambling. That prompted a group of Fort Walton businessmen to propose forming their own county.

After Gov. Fuller Warren became involved, law enforcement was ordered to crack down on local gambling; Sheriff Isle Enzor and two constables were suspended in 1950 for failing to enforce the law. Local critics said that was a distraction that would allow Warren to go easy on gambling in Miami and Tampa.

Enzor was re-elected in 1952, but the public spotlight had wiped out open gambling by then. The Shalimar Club reopened gambling-free in 1956, but folded soon after.

Florida is no longer so anti-gambling, with Seminole casinos, casino cruises, dog-track betting and other games of chance freely available. Peter Bos of Legendary Inc. said he expects gambling to spread statewide but hopes it doesn't spread into Destin.

"Is it a good thing in Destin?" Bos said. "My opinion is no, we're a family destination ... There's gambling down the street in Mobile, or you can go to Mississippi (but) I don't believe it adds to Destin, I think it probably detracts."