21. Wyatt made money in gambling and mining after losing his job as deputy
Although some of his later apologists, including Sadie Marcus, later claimed that Wyatt never made money through gambling and running prostitutes, the evidence is overwhelming that he did, especially after leaving the sheriff’s office. Gambling was a legal, if not wholly respectable profession, and Wyatt not only ran faro tables, he wrote to his friend Bat Masterson inviting him to come to Tombstone and work for him running table games. Masterson complied, remaining in Tombstone until the spring of 1881 when he returned to Dodge City. There is no evidence that Wyatt cheated; understanding the odds favored the house he had little need to do so.
