While the state was preoccupied with gambling, the 1990s economic boom across the United States largely bypassed Louisiana, which lost thousands of manufacturing and oil jobs and now finds itself in an almost-desperate game of catch-up with other states in attracting new business in a much-slower environment.
Three Indian reservation built gambling institutions - free from state taxation- and their location on land was considered more attractive to gamblers. The Shreveport and Lake Charles areas, originally slated to have only a small piece of the action, instead became Louisiana's tourist gambler stops, entertaining millions from Texas. New Orleans failed as a tourist destination point for gamblers, while the once-quiet beaches of Biloxi, Miss., and miles of impoverished cotton fields in Tunica, Miss., became the Deep South's key destination points for players.
Although more than 18,000 people are employed in the business, almost nothing has turned out the way that gambling supporters expected, while unfortunately, many of the warnings that opponents voiced from the start have come true.
