1993: A new gambling era begins in New Orleans

1993: A new gambling era begins in New Orleans
By The Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune

A new gambling era began on Nov. 8, 1993, when the Star Casino on Lake Pontchartrain opened its doors. In less than a decade, Louisiana welcomed three forms of legalized gambling: a state lottery, video poker machines, and casinos on the state’s rivers and at the foot of Canal Street.

Critics warned that gambling would nourish the state’s culture of political corruption, and they were right. But the industry became a reliable employer and helped the state diminish its dependence on oil and gas.

Louisiana’s chief cheerleader for gambling was Gov. Edwin Edwards. But most of the measures legalizing gambling passed while Buddy Roemer ran the show in Baton Rouge. The lottery, video poker and riverboat casinos were all approved on Roemer’s watch.

There were two chief reasons why the Louisiana public accepted the gambling measures: Roemer, the reformer, was expected to win re-election in 1991, so he would oversee the licensing; and Mississippi was legalizing casinos.

Edwards’ chief contribution to the gambling landscape was to authorize a single land-based casino at the site of the Rivergate, an obsolete convention center. The competitors for the right to operate the gambling hall made promises so lavish that the project went broke twice before finding its financial footing, thanks in part to a state tax break in 2001.

The timeline: May 1, 1995: Harrah’s temporary casino opens in the Municipal Auditorium. Nov. 22 1995: The casino files for bankruptcy, the temporary casino closes and work on the permanent casino stops. Oct. 28, 1999: The permanent casino opens. For the past 10 years, Harrah’s New Orleans Casino has been a dependable source of jobs and tax revenue.

Riverboat casinos never provided the economic boom for the New Orleans area that supporters had expected. The Star Casino lasted a year and a half before shutting down and eventually heading for Lake Charles. But lavish casino developments like L’Auberge du Lac lifted Lake Charles and Shreveport, which benefited from their proximity to Texas.

When he unexpectedly won the 1991 governor’s race, Edwin Edwards inherited an opportunity for political corruption that dwarfed anything he had encountered in his first three terms. He won the right to award licenses for the state’s 16 casinos. In 2000, nearly five years after he left office for the last time, a Baton Rouge jury convicted him of extorting nearly $3 million from companies that applied for the licenses, and he was sent to jail for more than eight years.

Tomorrow, 1994: New Orleans' homicide rate peaks.