citizens who love to gamble and the lack of clear and enforceable federal regulations, offshore operators made billions from online casinos from 1995 to 2006. Almost 100 years later, the Louisiana lottery was back and continues today as a profitable government run lottery that is used to fund, in part, public education in Louisiana.įueled by U.S. Opposed on moral grounds and teeming with corruption, the Louisiana State Lottery Company (a private corporation licensed by the state) was effectively doomed by 1892. Illegal casinos and card games which once thrived in New Orleans, its surrounding Parishes and on Mississippi riverboats now find a legal home in downtown New Orleans and on many of the State’s major waterways.įollowing the Civil War, Louisiana hosted one of the largest, and for about 15 years, the only legal lottery in the United States. By 1835, the licensing of casinos was repealed by the Legislature, but many casinos continued to flourish illegally. During this time New Orleans actually had a street named Craps (now Burgundy Street) in honor of the ubiquitous dice game imported by the French settlors. In 1823 New Orleans had six casinos licensed by the Louisiana legislature.

Louisiana has had a long and colorful history of gambling-both legal and illegal.

Focus on Business Newsletter Online Gaming in Louisiana: History and Prospects for the Future