London in the sixties was a haven for colourful, larger-than-life characters. It was not just rock stars and movie stars who played a part, but the town’s casino-owning families as well.
John Aspinall was one of the true figures of swinging sixties London. A nightclub proprieter, he won a court case that allowed him to open the first licensed casino in the United Kingdom. With a passion for animals, he also housed a menagerie at his wildlife sanctuary in Howletts, Kent. Along with his wife, the two defined a decade that made London world famous for its culture and hip vibe.
John Aspinall: The Casino Tsar of Sixties London
Aspinall was born in Delhi, the son of a British army surgeon. He had always enjoyed gambling, even failing to get his degree from Oxford as he went to Ascot racecourse on the day of graduation. Naturally, he took up a job as a bookmaker. At the time, this was the only form of gambling allowed in the United Kingdom. However, he would often return to London and host private card games and gambling for the wealthy elite.
Today, casino gaming has changed drastically in London and the UK. Players have access to a range of online platforms, which can be enjoyed from a mobile device. Not only do many of them have a range of games, far more than the Baccarat games that Aspinall offered, but they also accept payment in many different forms. These include traditional methods like bank transfer, but also modern ones like e-wallets and PayPal. Paypal betting sites are now extremely popular, allowing fast transfer of cash wherever you are playing.
However, without Aspinall, it is unlikely these would even exist. This was due to what is known as Aspinall’s law. At the time, gambling houses were illegal and defined as a place where gambling had occurred three times or more. Thus, Aspinall would move locations. When he was caught foul of the law, he won the subsequent court case, and the result would heavily influence the Betting and Gaming Act of 1960.
As a result, betting was first introduced on games of skill like bridge and poker. This was followed by the legal introduction of betting shops. Soon, both bingo halls and casinos were allowed if they made money only from membership fees, and not a percentage of the money staked.
Aspinall moved from bookmaking to opening some of London’s most exclusive casinos and private members’ clubs. These included the Clermont Club in Mayfair, along with others in the area and in Knightsbridge. Profits from this would be put into his second love: Animals, and he would use the proceeds to open two parks outside the city where he would breed exotic animals and wildlife.
Who Was Lady Sarah Aspinall?
Just as fruitful and extravagant was the life of Lady Sarah Aspinall. Born in 1945, she became a model in her teens. In her twenties, she was a regular figure on the racing circuit. Her father had been a celebrated driver and politician, and she then began to date other drivers like Piers Courage. They were later married, but tragically, and such was the danger of racing driving then, he lost his life in the Dutch Grand Prix. Widowed with two children, she was only 25 years of age.
Modelling and the opening of a hip florist followed, and it was in the latter that she met John Aspinall. Attracted by his flair for casinos and zoology, the twenty-year age gap mattered not, and he soon swept her off her feet. They were married by 1972, and she found new life at his sanctuary, breeding gorillas and tigers, and rehabilitating animals for release back into the wild.
The Aspinalls in Swinging London
The Aspinalls lived in the plush Belgravia neighbourhood. However, their eclecticism and array of animals did not make them good neighbours. The Aspinalls would walk their tigers at 3 am so that they would not attack the other dogs in the area. This meant they increasingly spent more time out of the city on Aspinall’s many estates. Lady Aspinall would also take the small animals she was raising around London with her, dropping off the children at school with cheetahs in tow or bringing a baby gorilla to lunch.
Today, the foundation John set up in 1984 is still running. It has two partner parks, the Howlett’s Wild Animal Park and the Port Lympne Reserve. John passed away in 2000, and since then, his son Damian has run the projects which see animals reintroduced to places in Asia and Africa.
When it comes to casinos, Aspinall provided a very important lesson. The first is that the proceeds from gambling can be used for good. This is something that is being hotly contested, both in the US and Europe. As countries decide how to tax profits from online gambling, Aspinall’s legacy suggests that they should perhaps turn towards what the money will be used for, and possibly fund wider programmes outside the sphere of gambling, helping to create a better world.
