Sunday, February 11, 2007

Diamond Tooth Gertie's


the casino is open on weekends now...so of course we went! Diamond Tooth Gertie's is Canada's oldest legal casino, housed in the old Arctic Brotherhood Hall built in 1901. it's a great old music-hall, inside, with an upstairs balcony (that's how we got this great shot of the roulette wheel). it's a very calm casino, almost no pit bosses glaring at you, and each roulette player has a different colour of chip, which means no arguments about who placed what on which number. very civilized!
Gertie really did exist, she ran a dancehall in Dawson and had a diamond wedged between her two front teeth. her dancehall girls weren't nearly as raucous as you might think: miners paid a dollar to dance a waltz or polka for a minute (the musicians played fast in those days).

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