How the Mob Brought Gambling to Cathedral City in 1934

It was 1934 when gambling first came to the Coachella Valley—though it wasn’t exactly legal. It started with a group you may not expect: the Purple Gang. These visitors from Detroit were a notorious mob of predominantly Jewish gangsters known for hijacking and bootlegging during Prohibition.

Al Wertheimer and his brother had a bold idea. They approached Palm Springs officials with a plan to open a plush nightclub that would provide jobs, fill hotels, and boost the local economy still reeling from the Great Depression. But city leaders weren’t having it—they refused to allow gambling within city limits.

So the Wertheimers took their vision just outside Palm Springs, to 20 acres of land in unincorporated Cathedral City. There, they built the Dunes Club—a luxurious casino and supper club that would soon draw Hollywood elites like the Ritz brothers, Humphrey Bogart, and Ronald Reagan.

The success of the Dunes Club led to the creation of two more gambling hotspots in Cathedral City: the 139 Club and The Cove.

But by 1941, the high-rolling days were numbered. California Governor Earl Warren pledged a crackdown on illegal gambling. Raids followed. Clubs were shut down. Gambling equipment was seized. And Al Wertheimer himself was arrested.

The last physical remnant of that era, the building that once housed The Cove—and later, the Cathedral City Elks Lodge—was recently lost to fire, erasing a key piece of desert history.

For Desert in a Minute, this is NBC Palm Springs historian Steve Sumrall. And maybe it’s time we did a whole show on why legal sports gambling should finally come to California.

Explore: NBCPalmSprings.com, where we are connecting the Valley.