A group of local citizens keen to promote tourism formed the Klondike Visitors' Association in the late 1950s. Recognizing that gambling was a major part of Dawson’s Gold Rush history, the association obtained a special gambling licence from the Canadian Government and in the early 1970s began running casino nights on the dry-docked S.S. Keno.
Today, Dawson City’s world famous non-profit gambling hall is named after bona fide dance hall queen Diamond Tooth Gertie. During the Gold Rush of 1898, in order to distinguish herself from numerous Klondike kings and queens, Gertie Lovejoy wedged a sparkling diamond between her two front teeth. Any discomfort this caused paid dividends. Instead of working the creeks for her riches, Diamond Tooth Gertie made her fortune by mining the lonely prospectors who readily opened their gold pokes in return for her affections. In Dawson City today, Gertrude Lovejoy’s moniker lives on at the town-run Diamond Tooth Gertie's Casino.
Replete with cancan dancers and a singing master of ceremonies named Gertie, Canada’s oldest gambling hall gives you a chance to re-live the heady days of Dawson’s Gold Rush era. With three nightly shows by Gertie and her Gertie Girls, Diamond Tooth Gertie's is today a fixture of fun-filled entertainment where patrons can enjoy a beverage while playing blackjack, roulette, Texas Hold'em poker and an array of glittering slot machines.
Dawson can be visited on several of our Yukon itineraries.
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