The American Civil War created a perfect storm for gambling. Hundreds of thousands of young men were idle between battles, flush with pay, surrounded by uncertainty and boredom, and death was close enough to make any man feel invincible at the card table. Faro exploded.
During the Civil War, Washington, D.C. had over 150 Faro houses running at once. The capital of a nation fighting for its survival was simultaneously hosting the most concentrated faro action in American history. Politicians, generals, contractors, suppliers, spies, and soldiers all sat at the same green baize tables.
The game moved through military camps as surely as it moved through saloons. Professional gamblers followed the armies, setting up tables in any tent large enough to hold a crowd. Devol honed his skills and earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in the years leading up to the Civil War. Working the steamboats of the South, he joined in with other card sharps, including Canada Bill Jones, Bill Rollins, Big Alexander, and many others.
After the war, returning veterans spread faro further west, into the cattle towns and mining camps that were transforming the face of America. The game was everywhere. It was, as the 1882 report put it, surpassing all other forms of gambling combined.