Richard Albert Canfield
Entrepreneur, Connoisseur, “King of the Gamblers”
Richard Albert Canfield was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on June 17, 1855. After his father’s death, his mother moved the family to Providence, Rhode Island, when Richard was 11. At 14, he graduated from grammar school and seems to have had no further schooling. Gambling caught his interest early on; he spent his late teenage years working in gaming houses. By the time he was 21, he financed a trip abroad with his winnings, steeping himself in European art and culture.
Richard entered the business side of gambling, working his way up in management at various New York and New Jersey resort establishments. He ran his own poker room in Rhode Island during the winter. Married in 1882, Richard settled in Providence and became a partner in a gambling house.
In 1883 he took a partial partnership in the Casino in Saratoga Springs, buying the property outright the following year for $250,000. Richard invested an estimated $800,000 in enhancements to the building and the grounds of Congress Park, to try to bring them up to the standards of the top European establishments. In 1902–1903 he added a sumptuous dining room to the back of the Casino, fitting it with stained glass windows and an early form of air conditioning. He ordered marble statuary for the Italian gardens in the northeast corner of Congress Park. The elegant atmosphere made the cream of society feel comfortable betting their money on the Casino’s many games of chance.
Richard Canfield, who died in 1914, was recognized as the King of Gamblers, and Saratoga Springs was seen as the “American Monte Carlo.”