Evening star., 1939-11-24
Federal Inquiries
Curb Gambling
In New Orleans
Swunk Places Closed;
Many Games Open to
Little Fellows
BY the Associated Press,

By the Associated Press.
NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 24-Gam-
bling, thanks to score of Govern
ment investigators prying into fair
Louisiana's complex political affairs
and very lusty political campaign,
has taken a big nosedive here in
recent months, but not too big a
nosedive.
Slowly the most complete and
unrestrained gambling setup short
of, say, Monte Carlo has had to
recede in the face of the relentless
Federal and other Investigations, but
the gambling front has only closed
ranks under fire.
Blackjack, klondike and craps
games have had to fold their tents
for reasons unstated by police, but
for those who want to lose their
money there are still poker, about
400 handbooks, more than score of
lottery companies-real lotteries just
like those in foreign countries, only
Sunderland about $500 pin-ball
games.
The lush, downtown gambling es-
Establishments strictly for the car
riage trade are dark nowadays, and
finding a place to toss your coin is
sort of like during prohibition.
It's in the Blood.
Just stop the first man you meet
on the street and ask him if he
knows a place that's open. If he
doesn't the next man probably will,
unless he happens to be policeman.
If its policeman he'll tell you the
lids on, everything closed down.
You have but to use your eyes to
decide the police are being little
naive; But that's the way things
operate in parts of Louisiana.
Gambling dates back here to the
first settler, who legend says. came
ashore with pair of dice in one
hand and deck of cards in the
other. Gambling has had slight
spells of rigor mortis before and
recovered nicely. It's in the blood
of the people hereabouts.
So much so, in fact, that the New
Orleans Parent-Teacher Association
has just petitioned the School Board
and the State Department of Educa-
ton to incorporate a course IN
gambling" in high school curricula
to discourage it,
Gambling is with us to stay"
said Prof. Stuart K Jaffary of the
Tulane University Social Science
School. And the politicians prob
ably could not get rid of it if they
try. 1t is too deeply rooted among
the people of this city for economic
and social reasons to be ousted. 1t
is simpler to prove to students that
they can't win
Air Cooled Gambling Citadels.
"If children are going to live in
world of pin-ball and slot ma
chimes they should be educated
for it."
Just across the Paris County
lines from New Orleans are air.
cooled gambling citadels with indi-
rect lighting and chromium trim
where city chaps and nice old ladies
troop in nightly for whirl at craps,
roulette, slot machines and keno
which is played like lotto.
If man from Boston asked: why
close blackjack, klondlke and dice
games in the city and let handbooks
lottery, poker and pin-ball games
operate" the average man from New
Orleans would have to say: you got
me, pal I don't know Things
amt like they used to be-"
In the summer of 1885, two
months before Huey Long was shot
to death, the Chief" slot machines
marked with an Indian head, moved
In here in the thousands. They
were set up on their four metal leg:
in every imaginable business estab.
lishment where people passed OF
paused and stood erect and sacred
as totem poles.
The split was go per cent to the
"Chief' operators and 40 per cent t
the shopkeeper who allowed the ma.
chine on his premises.
The shopkeeper was delighted
The 40 per cent cut came like nickel!
from heaven to pay his rent and was
all his, without a penny spent fol
protection.
Ministers Demand Ban.
After two years of that, Protestant
ministers demanded that Mayor
Robert S. Maestri Danish the de.
vices. This was finally done
Now the Government charges the
operators of the Chiefs" crossed {
million dollars a year. On October
9. 1899, the Government indicted sn
men, one of them, James Brocato
alias Jimmy Moran, a companion O
Martin.
The indictment charges the six
during the years 1886 and 1887
evaded income taxes of half a mil
lion dollars on money derived from
the Chiefs"
The Government alleges that twt