ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 19, 1996 TAG: 9610210051
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS
SOURCE: Associated Press
FOLLOWING A HOST OF scandals involving the mob and state politicians, residents will vote whether to become the first state to de-legalize gambling.
Five years after welcoming casinos and video poker, Louisiana has that what-was-I-thinking morning-after feeling.
After a gumbo pot of corruption scandals, mob infiltration and a disastrous casino venture in New Orleans, voters will decide on a parish-by-parish basis Nov. 5 whether to bar gambling from their communities. (Parishes are the equivalent of counties in Louisiana.)
``Gambling is eventually going to suck our communities dry,'' said the Rev. Buford Easley of the Williams Street Baptist Church in New Orleans. ``It destroys families. It destroys individuals. It will eventually destroy communities. It will destroy the state.''
Ballot measures to introduce or expand gambling are on the ballot in at least eight states next month. But only in Louisiana are voters deciding whether to de-legalize gambling.
``If it's just the video poker machines that are voted out, it won't have a long-term effect,'' said Nelson Rose, a professor specializing in gambling issues at Whittier Law School in Los Angeles.
Since 1991, when the legislature legalized gambling, Louisiana has become a betting paradise with 14 riverboat casinos, 16,000 video poker machines and the huge casino project in New Orleans, a city that cherishes its vices with a let-the-good-times-roll gusto.
Since then, however:
* Twenty-five people, including a state lawmaker, were convicted on federal charges involving a mob scheme to infiltrate the video poker industry. Rep. Buster Guzzardo resigned and got three months in prison.
* Former state Sens. Larry Bankston, who once headed a powerful committee controlling gambling legislation, and B.B. ``Sixty'' Rayburn, who served 47 years in the Legislature, are awaiting trial on charges they took payoffs to head off legislation that could hurt video poker.
* William Broadhurst, a crony of former Gov. Edwin Edwards best known for chartering the Monkey Business yacht for Gary Hart's rendezvous with a model, is awaiting trial on charges he skimmed money off a riverboat construction contract.
* Harrah's Jazz Co., which sold $430 million in junk bonds to finance the big casino in New Orleans, closed its temporary gaming hall after only six months and filed for bankruptcy. But the project could still be revived.
``Even the most pessimistic person will tell you that we are going to vote out video poker in at least some of the parishes,'' said anti-casino lobbyist C.B. Forgotston of New Orleans.
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