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During the Prohibition era (until 1933), Hot Springs was frequented by many well-known gangsters.

Gambling and drinking continued at the Ohio Club. President Theodore Roosevelt was said to have visited on occasion. Singer Al Jolson performed at the Ohio Club in 1915, and baseball legend Babe Ruth frequented the club. Advertisements for the Ohio Cigar Store featured two different phone numbers, 210 and 211, respectively.

Behind the wall, the bar was on the main floor, while the gaming tables operated upstairs. In response, the Ohio Club officially became the Ohio Cigar Store, which was a front with a fake wall. However, the Arkansas General Assembly made gambling illegal in 1913, and the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919 outlawed the production, sale, and distribution of intoxicating beverages nationwide. The Ohio Club had in-house gaming and a full bar, attracting many patrons on both sides of the law. Reportedly, the bar was named the Ohio Club because their family had roots in Illinois, Kentucky, and Ohio, but both the Illinois Club and Kentucky Club had already been established. In 1905, Coffee Williams and Sam Watt founded the Ohio Club as a bar and casino. The Ohio Club was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Hot Springs Central Avenue Historic District on June 25, 1985. The Ohio Club has never closed its doors despite bans on both gambling and alcohol. It became a popular watering hole and meeting place for notorious figures such as Al Capone, Charles “Lucky” Luciano, and Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, as well as local legends like Owen “Owney” Madden and Arkansas gambling czar William Stokley Jacobs.

It was founded by John “Coffee” Williams and his nephew, Sam Watt, in 1905.

The Ohio Club at 336 Central Avenue in Hot Springs (Garland County) is considered Arkansas’s oldest continually operating bar.