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“I’m shocked, shocked, to find out gambling is going on here.”

The quote that became the headline for this issue of the Geneva Shore Report is famous, and taken from the screenplay of the movie Casablanca, so brilliantly written, and played out so many years ago.  The quote was used to illustrate what might be going on in downtown Lake Geneva, as anonymous sources have come forward to report. Anonymous sources are those that are most uncomfortable to deal with for any news organization.  Anonymity allows the responsibility for the supposed information sources to be transferred from those sources to the writers, editors, and publishers of the news organization, sometimes with very painful and potentially expensive results.

The words ‘rumor’ and ‘alleged’ have become known for attempting to cover such liability, as well as attempting to put potential news out in front of the public before true confirmation of the data takes place.  This is done because so many stories never end up with true confirmation. The reporting public is, by and large, filled with a lot of fear about becoming known as a whistleblower or a ‘rat,’ to use a more common term for releasing information that others do not want released.

The rumors about gambling in Lake Geneva are just that.  Two anonymous sources report the following:  Gambling is going on during the weekends at the bar called Fat Cats located on Broad Street in downtown Lake Geneva.  People line up in cars, parked on lower Broad Street waiting to enter the establishment to drink and make bets.  The operation is allegedly conducted in Fat Cats, but the operation is truly, and allegedly, run and managed out of a bar just across the border in Richmond, Illinois.  The name of that bar remains unknown, although several that might meet the requirements have been checked out.  There also appears to be a woman who drives up every weekend morning from that bar (Illinois has legal gambling while Wisconsin does not), and parking her black Jeep on Broad Street.  It’s true that the GSR has witnessed such a vehicle and occupant doing that, but then there are a lot of women and black Jeeps on the planet.  No attempt has been made to encounter the bar owner, operators, or the woman by GSR reporters.  Not yet anyway.

The overall operation of the alleged Fat Cat gambling activity is also not totally managed down in Richmond.  No, there is also the potential for a ‘Mafia kind of Don’ living in the Dells who is the titular head of a chain of these local gambling havens.  His identity, if he exists, remains unknown at this time.  What’s really going on at Fat Cats and why are all those cars parked out there every weekend morning (supposedly because most sports games to be bet on occur later on both days of the week)?

The answer to that question remains unknown at this time.

To be allowed to enter and gamble at this place also, and again allegedly, requires that one be accepted and put on a list that allows full participation.  Is illegal gambling going on in downtown Lake Geneva?  The Geneva Shore Report is very interested in this issue, more from a chain of historical events rather than from any law enforcement or ‘victimless crime’ sort of reason.  Prohibition saw the building of the extensive tunnel complex that still connects many of the businesses located along Main and Broad Streets, although most of those businesses have locked steel doors preventing access to the tunnels themselves, except in certain unknown circumstances.  Al Capone once used Lake Geneva as a getaway place from his illegal operations down in Chicago.  The butter/margarine wars featured secret operations located in Lake Geneva, since it’s so close to the Illinois border, back when the synthetic manufacture of butter (margarine) was going on.  Wisconsin and Illinois were deeply involved in the margarine wars all the way up until about 1950.  There is a tradition of under-the-table kind of illegal operations that goes way back in the history of Lake Geneva.

The GSR is trying to find out if this tradition is now continuing but with a new venue, and that’s likely to be gambling.   There will be further reports as this New Year gets underway.  Incidentally, there is no legal gambling allowed in Wisconsin, outside of bingo and few other ‘for entertainment only’ activities by charities.  Only casino gambling is allowed and there is only one ’sports book’ located inside the Oneida Casino.