The Gangster Museum of America

Hot Springs built its fame on its thermal waters, drawing health-seekers to soak in its bathhouses for generations. But alongside that legitimate resort trade grew something else entirely: a thriving illegal gambling industry that operated more or less openly for much of the early and mid twentieth century, with casinos, bookmaking parlors, and betting on horse racing running behind and above the respectable storefronts.

This unusual arrangement survived because local officials tolerated and protected it, and because the flow of visitors and money it brought was too valuable to shut down. For decades Hot Springs functioned as a place where the ordinary laws against gambling and, during Prohibition, liquor simply were not enforced, making it a magnet for anyone looking to play, drink, and lie low.

Precisely because it was wide open and out of the way, Hot Springs became a favored retreat for the era's notorious underworld figures. Al Capone is the most famous of them, said to have visited to soak in the baths, gamble, and escape the pressures of Chicago, but he was far from the only one. The town offered gangsters something rare: a place to relax in comfort where they could indulge without much fear of interference.

The museum leans into these stories, recounting which famous names came through and what they did while in town. It is less a chronicle of shootouts than a portrait of a place, a resort where the criminal and the respectable mingled at the gambling tables and in the bathhouses, and where the line between the two was blurred for decades.

The museum presents its history through guided tours led by knowledgeable, entertaining storytellers rather than by silent wandering among cases. That format suits the material, which is above all a story worth being told aloud, full of colorful characters, close calls, and the peculiar logic of a town that got rich by looking the other way.

Exhibits, artifacts, and photographs support the tour, but the heart of the experience is the narrative, delivered by guides who know how to hold a room. Because it runs on tour times, it is worth checking the schedule so you can time your visit, and it makes an easy and memorable stop while exploring downtown Hot Springs.

The museum sits on Central Avenue, the historic main street of Hot Springs, directly across from Bathhouse Row, the row of grand early-twentieth-century bathhouses that forms the heart of Hot Springs National Park. That setting is fitting, since the legitimate spa trade and the illegal underworld grew up side by side along this same street.

A visit here pairs naturally with a stroll along Bathhouse Row, a soak in one of the still-operating baths, or a walk up the promenade behind the bathhouses. Together they let a visitor experience both faces of Hot Springs, the respectable healing resort and the wide-open gambling town, that coexisted for so long in this unusual place.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.