EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY:
LOUISIANA DOWNS
BOSSIER CITY, LA (1987)
Texas remains one of the most backward states in the country when it comes to gambling (and many other things, too). And yet, Texas is a state known for gambling. Many gambling games originated in Texas. Ever heard of Texas Hold’em? Many of the most famous gamblers in history were Texans.
Even today, Texans still can’t shoot craps, play a hand of blackjack, sit down in a poker game, bet on sports, nor gamble in any form within their own state. So much for freedom. Texas remains hostile to virtually all forms of gambling, except for the idiot lottery and a few floundering racetracks.
There are many reasons for this lunacy, but it’s mostly because conservatives and fundamentalist Christian groups have a stranglehold on the state its citizens and refuse to let go. Texas is one of the few states without any legal casinos (I believe this remains true–correct me if I’m wrong). This is stunning–what mind-boggling idiocy and hypocrisy.
Texas’ neanderthal mentality and Bible-thumping doesn’t stop gambling. It just goes underground. It also moves legal gambling across borders into neighboring states. Some of the most profitable casinos in the U.S. are just on the other side of the Texas border, most notably in Oklahoma and Louisiana. Visit sometimes and check out the parking lots at these casinos. They’re packed with cars from Texas, judging by looking at the license plates. So, the neighboring states reap 100 percent of the benefits of tax revenues, while Texans dump their money across the border and Texas continues to rank nears the bottom of every quality of life metric.
I was raised in and mostly grew up in Texas. I started gambling from the earliest time I can remember. I’ve always gambled, and no moral puritan was ever going to stop me. To be clear, I despise those people who imposed their narrow-mindedness on everyone else. So, in the mid-1980s, I (and thousands of others) used to drive from Dallas to Shreveport, about three hours away, which was the closest legal gambling spot.
Before casinos were legalized in Louisiana (around 1990, I think), there was a thriving horse racing industry. For Dallas gamblers, we drove to Oak Lawn (Hot Springs, AR) during the winter and Louisiana Downs (Shreveport-Bossier City, LA) in the summer. The tracks used to stagger their racing seasons, not to overlap.
I loved going to Louisiana Downs. I probably made 20-25 trips from my college days until I left Texas for good. $100 could last an entire day, and $200 was like being rich. You could live like a king. I would chip in for gas, eat great food, drink cheap beer, sit in the grandstand for $2, bet on every race, and hopefully have a few bucks left over at the end of the day. If we won, we stopped at Johnny Casey’s (a Creole restaurant in Longview, TX) on the way home, which served the best fried catfish in the state. Okay, so I lost just about every trip, so usually the winner paid. It’s hard to beat horseracing (maybe impossible now) and I didn’t know much about it, certainly not enough to make any money. That didn’t matter. Those were fun times.
This photo was taken at Louisiana Downs in 1987. I’m with two well-known gamblers from the Dallas scene, who were my closest friends at the time. They both knew a lot about horseracing, but never agreed on anything, so they spent most in-between races arguing, which left me even more confused about which horse to bet on. On the far left is “Iranian Mike.” He was a good poker player. Totally fearless. We mostly bet sports together, every night of the week. “Iranian Mike” even visited me later up in Atlantic City and Foxwoods. Last I heard, he was a floorman at a casino in Oklahoma, but that’s old information. The guy in the middle was my other good friend, nicknamed “Charlie Tuna.” Charlie and I went to college together and developed a close friendship that largely revolved around gambling. I lost track of Charlie about 20 years ago. I hope my friends are still around and (more important) still in action.
Here we are at the track, probably down to our last few bucks. But the day was hot and the beer was cold (I’m probably drinking Old Milwaukee). Spending the day or weekend at Louisiana Downs was always a great time.