Synopsis
This investigative report on legalized gambling in the state of Louisiana and its close connection to the political culture of that state focuses on the role of Governor Edwin Edwards. Bridges tells a tale of corruption and chicanery against a background of high-rolling lifestyles.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2001-05-01 | | Edition Description: | Illustrated |
| Size | | Length: | 422 pages | | Height: | 9.5 in | | Width: | 6.0 in | | Thickness: | 1.5 in | | Weight: | 25.6 oz |
Publisher's Note
An outrageous tale of fast cash, dirty politics, and extravagant greed in the Bayou State.
Louisiana is our most exotic state. It is religious and roguish, a place populated by Cajuns, Creoles, rednecks, and Bible-thumpers. It is a state that loves good food, good music, and good times. Laissez les bon temps rouler -- let the good times roll -- is the unofficial motto. Louisiana is also excessively corrupt.
In the 1990s, it plunged headlong into legalized gambling, authorizing more games of chance than any other state. Leading the charge was Governor Edwin Edwards, who for years had flaunted his fondness for cold cash and high-stakes gambling, and who had used his razor-sharp mind and catlike reflexes to stay one step ahead of the law. Gambling, Edwin Edwards, and Louisiana's political culture would prove to be a combustible mix.
Bad Bet on the Bayou tells the story of what happened when the most corrupt industry came to our most corrupt state. It is a sweeping morality tale about commerce, politics, and what happens when the law catches up to the most basic human desires and frailties.
Industry Reviews
"BAD BET ON THE BAYOU is very much a reporter's book, a straightforward account of the money-making, politics and corruption, with gambling as a leitmotif. The narrative has all the flaws of newspaper prose...and at times the labyrinth of names in the myriad deals involving riverboat casinos, video poker and the huge Harrah's casino in downtown New Orleans force the reader to leaf back a few pages to keep straight who is trying to cheat whom. But these are small drawbacks to a saga with lots of juice."
Chicago Tribune Books - Tyler Bridges (05/27/2001)
"[A] fairly lively, well-researched explication of the corrupt ins and outs of Louisiana gambling...."
San Francisco Chronicle Book Review - Kevin Fagan (06/03/2001)
"...Bridges is a formidable reporter and a competent writer, albeit with an unfortunate predilection for clichés. The first two-thirds of his book, in which he describes in astonishing detail the corrupt process by which legalized gambling came to Louisiana, surely will be of interest mainly to connoisseurs of such matters or to residents of that state who have not yet had their fill of the story. The real meat of the book is in its final hundred pages, wherein Bridges recounts the FBI's pursuit of Edwards and the former governor's eventual downfall."
Washington Post Book World - Jonathan Yardley (05/27/2001)
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