Gambling Going Bust In The Fabled Big Easy

It seemed a sure bet: casino gambling in Sin City.

Instead, big gambling has crapped out in the Big Easy. A $830 million casino under construction next to the French Quarter sits half-finished, the project all but dead.

And the last riverboat casino in downtown New Orleans closed this week.

“The casino people put gambling in New Orleans on the basis of ‘build it and they will come,”’ said C.B. Forgotston, a lawyer who led the casino opposition from the start. “What they missed is that the casino cannot compete with the existing attractions of New Orleans.”