Cards, Gold Dust, and High Stakes: Gambling in the Yukon

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Before the rush to Dawson turned the Klondike into a gold-fueled frenzy, gambling was already part of life in the far north. In the trading posts and mining towns of the Yukon, card games weren’t just a pastime; they were a central part of social life and, for some, a quicker path to ruin than the creeks ever were. Some of those games are almost forgotten now, while others are still around and remain popular today.

Faro: King of the Tables

Faro reigned supreme in the saloons of the Yukon. The game, which originated in France in the late 17th century (where it was known as “Pharaoh”),  was quick, exciting, and offered players what they believed was a fair chance, since the rules provided only a minimal edge for the dealer, or “house.”

Faro was played with one deck of cards. There could be any number of players, sometimes  referred to as “punters”;  the dealer was called the “banker.”

The game was played on a special board that displayed one card of each denomination, usually in the suit of spades. Each player would place a bet on one of the 13 cards or place multiple bets on different cards by placing their bet between cards. There was also a “high card” box at the top of the layout.

Faro game board.

The cards were dealt from a special box. The first card, called the "soda," was "burned off" (discarded), leaving 51 cards in play. After the banker discarded the first card, he dealt a card, called the “banker’s card,” and placed it to his right. He then dealt another card, called the “English card” or “player’s card,” and placed it to his left.

If someone placed a bet on the “banker’s card,” the banker won that money. For those who bet on the “player’s card,” the banker paid double the sums staked. If the banker dealt a pair, he won half the stakes that were bet on the card. Players could also wager on the “High Card” bar, betting that the “player’s card” would be higher than the “banker’s card.” If a bet had neither won nor lost, the player could leave it on the table, take it back or change it before the next draw.

Tables ran day and night. At Circle City, pots could reach hundreds of dollars, and miners sometimes lost a month’s wages in a single night without complaint. After the Klondike strike, when all the action moved to Dawson, the bets there could climb to five hundred dollars at a time, with one player losing eighteen thousand dollars in a day and a half, which is similar to losing around $700,000 today, or even over $2 million if measured by gold’s current value.

It wasn’t all losses, though. One-Eyed Riley, a night watchman, spent all his wages on faro until a sudden winning streak left him twenty-eight thousand dollars richer, a small fortune even in gold country.

Because the dealer’s edge in faro is very low, and the game is not profitable for the house, it went out of fashion by the 1950s and is now almost completely forgotten. 

Poker: A Game of Grit

Poker, while not nearly as popular as faro, was still widely played in Yukon, especially stud poker - the version of the game where players receive a combination of face-up and face-down cards, with some of their hand visible to opponents throughout the betting rounds. The ante started at a dollar (not a small amount for that time in any other place, the price of a pair of working boots or a cotton dress), and seeing the third card might cost five hundred dollars. The pots could climb swiftly, particularly during winter when miners were flush from clean-ups.

Circle City, known as “The Paris of Alaska” for its surprising touches of civilization, hosted many heated games. Fortunes could change hands in a single hand, and tensions sometimes flared into violence, as in nearby Fortymile, where, about 4 years before the Klondike stampede began, a poker dispute ended in a shooting.

Saloon in Fortymile

In Dawson, the stakes grew even higher. One legendary game reached a pot of fifty thousand dollars, then soared to one hundred and fifty thousand ($17 million if measured in gold’s current value!) before it ended, with four queens losing to four kings. Even bystanders could get caught up: Swiftwater Bill and John J. Healy once lost five thousand dollars between them in a single side bet on a stud poker game they were only watching.

In contrast to Faro, stud poker, although less popular than Texas Hold’em, is still actively played in casinos and online poker rooms.

Three-Card Monte

While faro and poker ruled the tables in the Yukon, three-card monte found its place in Skagway and Circle City, but it was rarely an honest game. Run by sharp-eyed hustlers using sleight of hand and distraction, it was a classic con designed to part the unwary from their gold dust. Quick and deceptive, these games lined the walls of saloon tents, luring those who believed they could spot the winning card, only to learn too late that the game was rigged from the start. One tale recounts a miner who lost a week's pay in seconds while the dealer's accomplice jostled him 'by accident' to break his focus. Another story speaks of a gambler who let a few players win small sums to draw a crowd before expertly fleecing a newcomer out of a heavy poke of gold dust.

Gold Dust and Honor

In Yukon, the games ran on gold dust, weighed on brass scales kept on the tables. Miners paid their debts quickly; a reputation for honesty was vital in the small communities of the north. Losing a hand meant nothing if a man could walk back to his claim, shovel out more gold, and return to the table to try again.

Winning a large pot often meant the winner would buy drinks for the room, strengthening the bonds that held the isolated towns together through the long dark winters. Gambling debts were settled promptly, and a man known to dodge them found himself unwelcome in saloons and cabins alike.

Gambling and the Northern Spirit

Gambling in the Yukon wasn’t just about cards; it was about risk, hope, and the thrill of chance, values that mirrored the gold rush itself. As traders like Jack McQuesten and Arthur Harper built supply lines and communities in the north, miners found ways to spend their gold as quickly as they dug it, often over a faro table or a poker hand, under lamplight in a log-cabin saloon.

Long before the stampede into Dawson, cards, gold dust, and the promise of one good hand kept the Yukon alive with stories of fortunes made and lost, reminding every stampeder who followed that sometimes the biggest gamble wasn’t at the creek, but at the card table.