Tom Moran and Tom Sewell Fantasy by the Sea Peace Press: Culver City, CA, 1980 (1979), 110 pp. (Originally published by Beyond Baroque Foundation with a grant from the Visual Arts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts), 1929, 1920s
Gambling Boats
"Gambling boats began to appear off the coast of Southern California in the late 1920s. Converted barges, ferries and grain ships were outfitted with neon lights and gaming tables and towed to mooring anchors just outside the three-mile jurisdiction of local authorities. Speedboats would ferry customers out to the floating casinos that sometimes offered entertainment and dancing as well as crap tables and roulette.
"One of the first boats was the Tango. It moored off-shore of Venice in 1929. Owned by Jim Lloyd, Cal Custer, Tony Cornero and Bill Blazer, the Tango was serviced by a fleet of water taxis operating from the Venice Pier."