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Brits jumped at the chance to earn plenty of money and live on these tax-free islands.

Ron knew it was an opportunity not to be missed. He came from a poor working-class background. His parents had met and married in Bermondsey, a grim district of London, but mother wanted much more for her children and soon relocated to a village in Kent, an adjoining county. Ron a clever child, was given the opportunity to attend good schools and smooth away his rough, cockney heritage. He became a gentleman.

His father, a gentle giant, except when drunk, was a handsome man who worked first as a doorman and later head receptionist in the exclusive private gambling clubs in the west end of London. As a child, Ron saw very little of his dad who always worked nights and weekends, and was raised almost exclusively by mum.
She had an unhappy childhood. Her mother had died shortly after giving her life, and she spent the next twenty years moving from one aunt to another, as her father had remarried and disowned his own blood to raise his new wife's children. Ron adored his mother, and remembered all she taught him. She was very protective of her own children, distrustful of outsiders, especially women and spoiled her three sons completely.

After his school years, Ron dabbled at several careers, including advertising and architecture before drifting into the same London night life that father inhabited. He trained as a croupier, earned a good salary and dreamed of living like the rich clientele who played cards at his baccarat table.

Before the advent of casinos, Grand Bahama island was a peaceful, untainted Caribbean hideaway. Its only claim to fame a history of smuggling and pirate folk lore. The west end was a popular resort for sport fishing, but the rest of the island was sparsely inhabited and mostly forest. El Casino changed all of that. Billed as the largest casino in the western hemisphere, it stood in the center of the small island, an outlandish Arabian style building encircled by hotels and the International Bazaar which boasted exotic cuisine to compliment upscale tax-free boutiques.

In the late sixties, El Casino was one of the first of the theme - type casinos that would eventually turn Las Vegas into the grotesque it has become today.
Within a few years, Freeport became a bustling tourist resort. It's attractions were miles of sandy white beaches, sea of glass, year round climate and casinos.
At that period in time, the only state with legalized gambling was Nevada. There

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