Moral Panic in the '60s:
Gambling and Grand Bahama

In the mid 1960s, the legalization of casino gambling in the Bahamas touched off fears among U.S. authorities that the dreaded Mafia—as personified by Meyer Lansky—might be having a field day in the islands. The excitement began in October 1966 with a Wall Street Journal article revealing conniving and corruption between Wallace Groves' Grand Bahama Development Co. and the old-guard Bahamian leadership starring the redoubtable Sir Stafford Sands and the Bay Street Boys. The following year Life magazine (Feb. 3, 1967) and the Saturday Evening Post (Feb. 25, 1967) joined in the fun. Ed Reid's chapter adds a little about Lou Chesler... Since much of this concerned Grand Bahama, I have included these articles, one from Newsweek (1964) and a part of an article from Queen, (25 Oct.,1967), as historical fodder for the interested reader.