[5] Exertions have been made from time to time by the citizens of
Louisiana for the suppression of gambling, but their efforts have until
recently, been unavailing. During the last session of the legislature of
Louisiana, however, a bill to suppress gambling-houses in New-Orleans,
passed both houses, and has become a law. One of the enactments provides
that the owners or occupants of houses in which gambling is detected,
are liable to the penalties of the law. For the first offence, a fine of
from one to five thousand dollars; for the second, from ten to fifteen
thousand, and confinement in the penitentiary from one to five years, at
the discretion of the court. Fines are also imposed for playing at any
public gaming table, or any banking game. The owners of houses where
gaming tables are kept, are liable for the penalty, if not collected of
the keeper; unless they are able to show that the crime was committed so
privately that the owner could not know of it. It also provides for the
recovery of any sums of money lost by gaming.
To make up the deficiency in the revenue arising from the abolition of
gaming-houses, a bill has been introduced into the legislature providing
for the imposition of a tax on all passengers arriving at, or leaving
New-Orleans, by ships or steamboats.
[6] Since the above paragraph was penned, the huge swinging lamps have
been superseded by gas lights, which now brilliantly illuminate all the
principal streets of the city.