Louisiana Lottery

The Louisiana Lottery was a private corporation that in the mid-19th century paid the state of Louisiana for the right to offer a lottery. The lottery promoters had gotten the scheme written into the laws of the state. Their charter could only be overturned by a two-thirds vote of the legislature and a vote of the people. When discontinued in 1894, it was the only legal lottery in the United States and also the largest. It had earned a reputation for corruption and bribery, and was finally brought down by a group of Louisiana politicians, who, under Edward Douglass White, successfully invalidated its charter.

Among those involved with the Lottery were former Confederate Generals P.G.T. Beauregard and Jubal Early.