Robert Joseph "Bob" Gans (October 27, 1887 – September 17, 1959) was the "slot-machine king" of the Los Angeles underworld during the interwar period, and later a philanthropist and civic leader.

Gans was one of the most circumspect figures in the history of organized crime in southern California, but he was associated with both Charlie Crawford's City Hall Gang of the 1920s and Guy McAfee's Combination in the 1930s.

In early 20th-century California, there were countless venues for gaming, and their importance only grew as the Roaring Twenties collapsed into the Great Depression: "Slot machines could be found in the rear of many restaurants.

For example, at Frank Sebastian's Cotton Club on Washington Boulevard, half the reason for the floor show and the "brassy band" was to "drown out the sounds from the casino upstairs".

[6] There were slots and pinball machines in the back of just about every bar, nightclub, pool hall, amusement park, carnival, ice-cream parlor, and drugstore in the Greater Los Angeles area during the interwar period,[7] and as one nostalgic account put it, "It is probably true that the pinball business was not simon pure...It is probably true that bars paid off big-hitters with beers, and tobacco shops paid off big-hitters with cigars.

A tight little group of other men, unpublicized veterans, sturdy figures in the city's nether regions, worked harmoniously together and divided the tremendous spoils of vice and gambling.

[9] According to a 1952 Los Angeles Daily News series on the history of crime in the city: "Two brothers who were engaged in the wholesale tobacco business were quick to see the power for profit from slot machines.

[15] The brothers were described as "wealthy inventors of gambling devices" in September of that year, after being arrested in Avalon on Catalina Island "on charges of maintaining gambling devices in the form of slot machines....According to deputy sheriffs who made the arrest, the two Gans brothers maintained 11 slot machines which paid off in cash instead of the usual trade checks.

Justice Hunter notified authorities that he had been warned to lay off the prosecution of the Gans brothers and had been threatened with the loss of his position should he continue with the case".

[16] Joe Gans died suddenly in 1926 at La Vida Hot Springs in Orange County's Carbon Canyon,[17][18] leaving an estate reported to be worth US$250,000 (equivalent to $4,440,320 in 2024).

[21][22] Employee Curley Robinson, who worked for Gans for "many years," took credit in 1947 for having expanded the firm's business in "Central America and the West Indies".

[25] In 1928, bootlegger and pimp Albert Marco was convicted of assault and sent to San Quentin, and in 1931, local underworld boss Charlie Crawford, the Gray Wolf, was shot and killed.

"[33] So long as Gans and associates kept cash for City Hall leadership as a line item in their budgets, they would have free rein to run their businesses as they saw fit.

"[36] Charles Gans testified at the same time that there had not been any slot machines running in Los Angeles for the past year; deputy district attorney Grant Cooper told the jury that former slot-machine operators were now in the "pin-and-marble game" business.

[42] On the last day of 1938, following the epochal 1938 Los Angeles mayoral recall election that removed Frank L. Shaw and put Fletcher Bowron in L.A. City Hall, a police raid on a warehouse on South San Pedro Street found 1,200 slot machines bearing the label J. J. Gans & Bro., which was believed to be "the first time an action of this magnitude" had been taken against the "erstwhile impregnable" Gans outfit.

[46] Gans allegedly retired from slot machines in about 1938 (after Earl Kynette bombed Harry J. Raymond), handing the reins of the racket over to Curley Robinson.

[47] The coin-operated games running at the end of the era were "machines that flash little lights, ring bells, buzz buzzers; shoot steel bearings, glass marbles, agate balls; register the totals by agitating dancing girls, airplanes, swimmers, racing cars.

[50] Police testimony in 1939 asserted that that analysis of one Los Angeles slot machine, which had been confiscated in a raid on a Scheffler brothers warehouse at 1823 South Hope Street,[51] found that "the take for the slot-machine owners is about 30 percent.

"[52] As Bowron oversaw a drastic LAPD house cleaning in 1939, he told reporters asking about personnel changes: "No one is satisfied with the department except Bob Gans, Charley Craddick, and Chuck Addison".

[53] The World War II draft registration card submitted by Gans' nephew-in-law Abe Chapman in 1940 listed his employer as Automatic Vendors, located at 1612 W. Pico Blvd.

When placed in this light, the Gans McAfee underworld hardly appears as far 'under' as the reformers claimed; and if they contributed $15,000 to [Frank L.] Shaw's campaign it certainly was not a sign of malfeasance.

[57] A 1949 report from a special California state commission on organized crime did not specifically refer to Gans but described the slot-machine industry generally as a font of untraceable cash that was protected by larger criminal enterprises:[58] "The pyramidal shape of the slot machine racket is plainly visible.

The personnel in the lower levels are easy to identify, but the apex of the pyramid is obscured in such a cloud of secrecy that identification of the true heads of the slot machine racket is extremely difficult...It does appear certain that the distribution and operation of slot machines is wholly in the hands of racketeers in all parts of the country...it is the common practice of slot machine operators throughout the country to pay 10 percent to 20 percent of their gross profit for protection and graft...for bribery and corruption of public executive officers, and that additional large amounts are being spent on a corps of lobbyists and a legal and public relations staff.

[59] The 1949 commission, created by California governor Earl Warren, suspected that annual gross revenue for slot machines nationwide was in the vicinity of US$2,000,000,000 (equivalent to $26,430,769,231 in 2024).

[60] According to the Kefauver committee "five powerful syndicate figures" met in a "Hollywood hotel room" in approximately 1950 to discuss a plan to recall Bowron and replace him with a more gambling-friendly Los Angeles mayor.

[62] Kleiger was known as a bookie, Utley "concentrated on bingo and abortion," and Rummel was a lawyer for Gardena poker clubs, Tony Cornero, and Mickey Cohen.

Sinai's merge with the Los Angeles Sanitorium,[65] and was honored for his service in 1955 with a banquet in the Embassy Room at the Ambassador Hotel that featured entertainers Jeanette MacDonald, Bob Crosby, Dick Contino, and Belle Baker.

Sinai, Mr. and Mrs. Gans, as a couple, were involved with "the Nathan Strauss Palestine Society, the City of Hope, the Los Angeles Jewish Community Council, and the Wilshire Boulevard Temple.

[90][91] The names Clifford Gans and Samuel "Curley" Robinson were associated in testimony recorded in Los Angeles in 1958, before the California state subcommittee on rackets.

[96][97] Sue Jean, from Missouri and California,[98] was variously described as a dancer and a "blonde showgirl,"[97] who was 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) and was characterized by a male newspaper writer as presenting herself "very high in the hair but low in the neckline".