The waters brought people to the Valley in droves but it was gambling that established Springs Valley as the leisure destination of the country for the first half of the twentieth century. At the height of gambling in the, Valley, the casinos were considered the most lavish in the world, perhaps rivaling the Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco.

Casino gambling officially began when Colonel Sinclair built a casino in the original West Baden hotel in 1895, but gambling was already in place on the second floor of the Hotel Clifton at the French Lick Springs Hotel. Because of Thomas Taggart's high-level political profile, the casino moved across the street when the hotel was rebuilt after the fire.

From the turn of the century to 1949, the mere mention of French Lick or West Baden conjured up the idea of gambling just as Las Vegas does today; and on the same national scale. The larger casinos catered to the affluent travelers who stopped in the Valley on their way home from "wintering" in Florida. Women in evening gowns and jewels, strolling on the arms of tuxedo-clad men, ate sumptuous dinners, then made their way to the casinos to "twist the tiger's tail", which was a clever euphemism for playing the games of chance.

A visitor to the Brown Casino in 1906 recalled stepping from the Colonnade into a sumptuously furnished reception room. Expensive rugs covered the floor, velvet-covered chairs and divans abounded. Upstairs, she found a long, narrow room with heavy velvet flooring, which muted all footsteps. Nine tables with polished wood dials attached, and stacks of white disks piled on them, lined the sides of the room. Lavishly dressed men and women huddled around these tables, putting down bills, gold and silver, receiving the disks, then giving up the disks to the men behind the tables, or receiving more, depending on the Outcome of their wager.

By the 1920s, most of the gambling in the Valley was controlled by the two major hotels. Thomas Taggart, due to his political stature, kept gambling at arm's length.

The Brown Casino was located across the street from the French Lick Hotel. Built With the same yellow brick and sharing the same heating system as the hotel, It had been told for many years that the Brown, built in 1898 and operated by Al Brown, was built to embarrass Tom Taggart by appearing to suggest a connection between the hotel and the gambling establishment. In reality, Taggart leased the Brown for "billiards and bowling"; taking in $50,000 a year one million tax-free dollars over the course of his ownership.

The Valley casino guests were famous and infamous, from all over the world. Al Capone was a regular with his fancy cars and his bodyguards. On any given night, one could find the likes of Cole Porter, Diamond Jim Brady, John Dillinger, Hopalong Cassidy, and the Marx Brothers winning and losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Al Capone purportedly married in a private home in French Lick and decided to spend his honeymoon at the French Lick Springs Hotel. It was said that Tom Taggart, not wanting the appearance of harboring a mobster, met Capone on the front steps and ordered him away from his hotel. Mr. Ballard graciously took in Capone and his new bride down the road at West Baden.

Mr. Taggart was never seriously harmed by the subtle dance he so perfectly choreographed between politics and poker. With the exception of some mud slinging from a Hearst newspaper on occasion, Mr. Taggart, who became National Chairman of the Democratic Party, remained virtually unscathed.

There were nearly 30 hotels and about 15 clubs all over the Valley, offering lodging, legendary cooking, and gambling to guests of varied races and means. The Grand, The Southern, The Ellis, The Oliver, The Colonial, The Howard, The Burton House, The Ritter House, The Avenue Hotel, The Grigsby House, The Lindly Inn, The Perrin House, The Wells Hotel, The Ryan Hotel, The Claxton, The Erwin, The Arlington, The Windsor, The City Hotel, The Sutton, The Oxford, The Gorge Inn, The Round Top Inn, The Homestead, and the Waddy. The Waddy was a black only hotel where Joe Lewis lived while training in the Valley. The hotels offered a variety of amenities and services to visiting guests. Total available rooms during this time, as listed by the Monon Railroad, were 2,906.

The clubs, such as the Club Chateau, The Gorge, The Sutton House, The Oxford, The Kentucky Club, The Indiana, The Green Acres, The Round Top and the Homestead catered to the needs of the hotel guests. The Babylon was another club which catered to blacks and black employees of the hotels. The clubs all offered gambling and fun for guests and locals. Locals were especially welcome in the basement of the Ballard mansion and in the basement of the Oxford. The Hoosier Club was a favorite spot on Sundays when most other clubs were closed. Located across from the West Baden Springs Hotel, the Homestead, built in 1912 by Ballard, also featured a casino in the basement.

Springs Valley became the point of origins for the migration of operators and dealers on their seasonal sojourn from Cuba to Florida to French Lick, then on to Mackinac Island. As many as forty dealers worked the tables at any one time at the Brown Casino. Ed Ballard dispatched four man wheel crews from West Baden to Hot Springs, to Saratoga Springs, and on to Havana. When one season was winding down in one location, the next city would just be getting into full swing. The crews worked nearly all year long and the money was very good.

Club owners in the Valley operated with complete impunity from the law. Prior to the establishment of the Indiana State Police in 1933, local law enforcement kept the general peace and upheld the community standards, which embraced the prosperity brought about by the casinos. Ed Ballard, a high profile Republican and Tom Taggart, top dog of the Democrats had plenty of clout to secure protection for their respective enterprises in the Valley. Reportedly, the governor's office was on the take for many years. One local man who worked for the Taggarts, both senior and junior, told of monthly trips to Indianapolis to the governor's office with an offering of cash from Ballard and Taggart.

There had been attempts to curtail the illegal gambling operations in the area.. The infamous media mogul, William Randolph Hearst, angered by Taggarts' opposition to his political aspirations, assigned gossip columnist, Evelyn Campbell to write an expose' on the overt gambling activities in the Valley. Hearst pursued the matter until a raid on the area clubs caused the state of Indiana to sue for receivership and the revocation of the hotel charters. Fortunately, the judge who heard the case in 1906, was a frequent guest of the Valley casinos and political crony of Tom Taggart. He ruled in favor of the casinos.

The casinos continued, as the French Lick Hotel passed from Thomas Taggart to Thomas Taggart, Jr. The Valley casino operation remained immune to the law due in part to its remote location and because its guests had vast amounts of disposable income. It was viewed as a "victimless crime." Finally, in 1949, raids to end gambling in the Valley shut down the casinos for good.

After various owners, West Baden has not been operational since 1983. In 1996, the West Baden property, now owned by the Indiana Historical Society and the Cook Group, began an amazing reconstruction and stands today poised to offer the world a glimpse of turn of the century opulence and grandeur.

In 1946, Tom Taggart, Jr. died, ending the political protection that had allowed the casinos to flourish for so many decades. The French Lick Springs Hotel continued on through various owners. In the late 1940s, John Cabot from New York purchased the hotel. The hotel business was changing and people were interested in visiting sleek, modern hotels. The Sheraton Corporation purchased French Lick in 1955 and operated the 600-room property until the late 1970s. In an effort to "modernize" the property, black and white linoleum covered the lobby tiles and brass and marble fixtures were painted or covered up.