Allen was born in
Jefferson County, New York, the son of Lyman Allen and Anna Duel, and lived in
Peoria, Illinois for some time before coming to Omaha. He arrived in Omaha in 1866, and opened a gambling house in
Downtown Omaha in 1878. It is believed that Dan met Anna Wilson in
New Orleans, eventually persuading her to come to Omaha with him. Omaha was known as a "wide-open" city for its first 50 years, with explicit
prostitution in the
Burnt District and
gambling in the
Sporting District, both located in
Downtown Omaha. Allen ran one of the most infamous
saloons and
gambling houses in Omaha from the 1860s through the 1870s on the second floor of the city's
Pioneer Block. On the first floor of the building, Allen ran a
pawnshop; on the second, a gambling hall. The two enterprises worked in sync: if players were out of money they could lower watches, diamonds or other valuables on a
dumbwaiter down to the
pawnbroker, who in turn would hoist the equivalent value in money back to the players. In a contemporary account from 1880 Allen was alleged to have run
Keno and
poker rooms in the open, with little or no resistance from
local police or politicians. == Personal life ==