At least $9,105,072 -- Includes 1993-94 campaign contributions and 1996 lobbying expenditures

June 9, 1997

The Pelican State has a state lottery, three Indian casinos, pari-mutuel betting, legal bookmaking and charitable games, video poker, a slew of riverboat casinos, and one non-Indian land casino in New Orleans. With this explosion of gambling has come a flood of gambling money into politics -- and the widespread corruption that saw several legislators indicted for bribes and kickbacks, and former Gov. Edwin Edwards tossed out of office for his gambling ties. Individual parishes (read counties), when they get tired of corruption, have the option of outlawing any or all types of gambling.

Under public pressure, the Legislature last year enacted a law to chase gambling money out of the statehouse: Act 67 prohibits persons "substantially interested in the gaming industry" from making campaign contributions to, or expenditures on behalf of, candidates or any committee that supports or opposes a candidate. But they may still spend unlimited amounts on committees supporting ballot initiatives -- and unfortunately, our investigation suggests this is precisely where the lion's share of gambling's political money is spent.

Louisiana campaign finance and lobbying expenditure, but not compensation, reports are only available on paper, for 25 cents a page, so Mother Jones relied mainly on the reporting and analyses of Louisiana newspapers. For campaign contributions, the New Orleans Times-Picayune found that the gambling industry gave $1,066,747 to state legislators in 1993-94, three times what the petrochemical industry gave -- we have no record of what legislators reaped from gamblers in 1992 or 1995-96.

For ballot initiatives, the Baton Rouge Advocate reported a massive $6.7 million spent by gaming interests to influence 1996 parish elections on video poker, riverboat casinos, and the New Orleans casino. As for lobbying, the state Ethics Administration told us that gambling lobbyists themselves spent $13,325 wooing legislators in 1996, but that doesn't count the huge fees that gambling companies paid these lobbyists. For instance, the Times-Picayune reported that as of December 1994, Grand Palais Riverboat Corp. and Casino America Inc. had paid at least $1,125,000 to lobbyist William C. Broadhurst, a close friend and former law partner of former Gov. Edwards; and that several riverboat casinos had paid at least $200,000 to another lobbyist and friend of Edwards, Randy Haynie.

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