The forms that gambling took were varied. In consequence, as a gambling city, New Orleans was dubbed the ‘wickedest city in the union’ ( The Semi-Weekly Journal Mar 6 1885.) In 1885 (the year of the Cotton Centennial Exposition), much newspaper correspondence came out of New Orleans, and much of this marvelled at the extent to which gambling ran in the city. Scanland argued that gambling to Orleanians was an ‘inherent mania’ that had ‘existed in some form among them from the foundation of the city, and their speculation in John Law’s “bubble” boom bonds’ ( Freeland Tribune pg 4.) Laws against gambling were passed and repealed, ignored and circumvented and licenses for gambling houses were also periodically issued for large fees. ‘The passion for gambling is deeply seated in our natures,’ wrote one Orleanian journalist ( New Orleans Daily Democrat Sep 10 1877) and J. Throughout the 19 th century New Orleans was famous for its gambling hells and for being the home of gamblers.

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