Bad Bet on the Bayou: The Rise and Fall of Gambling in Louisiana and the Fate of Governor Edwin Edwards - Hardcover

Bridges, Tyler

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374108307 ISBN 13: 9780374108304

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001

Synopsis

An outrageous tale of fast cash, dirty politics, and extravagant greed in the Bayou State.

Louisiana is our most exotic state. It is religious and roguish, a place populated by Cajuns, Creoles, rednecks, and Bible-thumpers. It is a state that loves good food, good music, and good times. Laissez les bon temps rouler -- let the good times roll -- is the unofficial motto. Louisiana is also excessively corrupt.In the 1990s, it plunged headlong into legalized gambling, authorizing more games of chance than any other state. Leading the charge was Governor Edwin Edwards, who for years had flaunted his fondness for cold cash and high-stakes gambling, and who had used his razor-sharp mind and catlike reflexes to stay one step ahead of the law. Gambling, Edwin Edwards, and Louisiana's political culture would prove to be a combustible mix.

Bad Bet on the Bayou tells the story of what happened when the most corrupt industry came to our most corrupt state. It is a sweeping morality tale about commerce, politics, and what happens when the law catches up to the most basic human desires and frailties.

About this title

About the Author

Tyler Bridges is a reporter for The Miami Herald, where he was part of a team that won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. He covered the 1990s legalization of gambling in Louisiana as a reporter for The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.

Reviews

As a New Orleans Times-Picayune reporter, Bridges covered the early '90s senatorial and gubernatorial campaigns of presidential hopeful David Duke, etching a sober portrait in The Rise of David Duke (1994). Four years later, Bridges joined the Miami Herald, where he won a 1999 Pulitzer as part of an investigative team and began work on this book. He traces the historical background of gambling in Louisiana from pre-Civil War riverboats and the Louisiana Lottery (shut down by the federal government in 1907) to 1940s casinos. Edwin Edwards (aka "Silver Zipper," aka "Cajun King"), the only man to be elected governor of Louisiana four times, in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, "could charm a society matron one minute and an oil-rig worker the next." When the bayou state's oil boom bottomed out in the 1980s, Edwards decided gambling could revive the economy, but the cash flow through casinos, riverboats and video poker led to corruption, greedy promoters and "snake-oil salesmen in expensive suits," as the Times-Picayune put it. Following FBI wiretaps and raids, the 72-year-old Edwards was indicted and convicted on charges of extortion from riverboat casino companies. Numerous quotes re-create remembered dialogue in this fascinating and fluid narrative reconstruction. Describing Louisiana as the country's most "exotic" state, Bridges does a formidable job of capturing its allure (as well as that of the former governor), but his easy flair is supported by high journalistic standards, including his meticulous attention to details and his exhaustive research which, all in all, make for an irresistible read. Photos not seen by PW. Agent, Flip Brophy. (May)Forecast: As the literature on Louisiana politics continues to grow and Louisiana in particular, the Big Easy remains a place of fascination for many Americans, this book, with its catchy, alliterative title, is destined for a prominent spot on the shelf.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

As an old Kentucky refrain goes, "In Kentucky politics are the damnedest." In analyzing political machinations and serious misuse of the public trust, especially by flamboyant Gov. Edwin Edward of Louisiana, Bridges, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Miami Herald reporter who covered Louisiana politics for the New Orleans Times-Picayune in the early 1990s, makes Kentucky politics seem tame. After discussing Louisiana's often sordid but always entertaining political history, the author devotes the remainder of the monograph to telling what happened when the state legalized gambling in the 1990s under Governor Edwards. Using primarily oral interviews with many of the participants, including Edwards himself, and files from the Times-Picayune, Bridges focuses on the key role fourth-term Governor Edwards played in bringing gambling to Louisiana. As an Edwards critic observed, "[H]e had a tragic character flaw; he thinks of politics as a way to make money for himself and his friends rather than public service. The flaw finally brought him to his knees." While critical of Louisiana's failed gambling experiment, Bridges's narrative is an excellent example of detailed investigative reporting that reads like a mystery novel. Recommended for public libraries. Charles C. Hay III, Eastern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Richmond
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

There may never be a Louisiana politician to equal Huey Long, but if there were, his name might be Edwin Edwards. (Remember the "Vote for the Crook" bumper stickers from the final days of Edwards' 1991 runoff battle against David Duke.) Between 1971 and 1996, Edwards spent 16 years in the governor's mansion, "flaunt(ing) his fondness for easy cash, pretty women, and high-stakes gambling as he dominated Louisiana politics." Prize-winning Miami Herald reporter Bridges covered Edwards' final term for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and then he followed the federal investigation and 28-count indictment that, in May 2000, produced a conviction of the former governor on 17 counts of conspiracy to extort money from riverboat gambling interests. (The verdict is being appealed.) Gambling--an industry with an ugly history in Louisiana since the nineteenth century--is at the heart of this story, and Bridges thoroughly documents the process by which "legalized gambling has needed less than a decade to supplant the petrochemical industry as the state's most powerful interest group." Mary Carroll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0374108307
• ISBN 13: 9780374108304
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256