Some cope by gambling what little is left

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Raymond Brown strips off $20 from a wad of bills and feeds it into the slot machine at the Argosy Casino, a riverboat that promises ''casino fun for everyone."

Never mind that his New Orleans house is flooded, and his family is living on mattresses at his brother-in-law's home nearby. But by morning, Brown -- a 60-year-old man who has lost everything -- is gambling.

''If I win, I'll make it better for us," he said.

Brown worries that his four dogs, left behind in New Orleans, drowned in Hurricane Katrina or were eaten by alligators afterward. He also worries that they could be sitting at home waiting for him, slowly starving to death. ''We call them our babies," he said, as he put $20 more in the slots.

In at least a dozen interviews, New Orleans residents coping with the costliest hurricane in US history said they are hitting the casinos here. Some are hoping that with a roll of the dice, they will recover a bit of what they lost. Others just want to pass the time out of the heat, relieve stress, or escape the shelters where they are living.

But as much as they hope to win, some are losing what little they have left.

''Tuesday I went, and I lost $279," said June Williams, who has been at a Baton Rouge shelter after evacuating her flooded home near New Orleans. ''I went Wednesday and lost $300. I might go today."

Some of the money was not even hers: The $279 she lost on the first day belonged to her grandson, who had gotten a government check, she said.

At the RiverCenter shelter over the weekend, where around 2,000 displaced residents are staying, word that there was a casino just a few blocks away swept through the building. Some went over just to stand around and watch.

Many evacuees said they went primarily for the free booze at the Argosy Casino. Wayne Allen, who is missing a leg and uses a wheelchair, said he gambled $30 so he could get free beers. He said other bars were too far away for him to go, and the shelter bans alcohol.

He had intended to spend less money, he said, but the nickel slot machines drew him in. ''It hypnotizes you," he said. ''You figure you're due to hit the big one."

Henry Banks had been sitting on the same bench outside the shelter for six hours, when others from New Orleans urged him to go to the casino. But Banks declined, saying he is trying to save enough money for gas to drive home when the time comes.

''If they go over there with $25 and lose that, that's a loaf of bread, gas and food," he said.

Red Cross officials running the RiverCenter shelter said they did not know that some of its residents were at the casinos. But people are free to leave during the day and go wherever they please.

''They must hope they'll get lucky, but the odds are against them," said William Magee, a Red Cross volunteer. ''It's a shame this place is so close to something like that."

Williams, who has lost nearly $600 gambling in the last several days, said the casino helps relieve stress from the hurricane, as she faces the fact that most of her possessions are gone.

''I lost my graduation pictures, my diploma, my house papers, my deeds for my land -- I don't have none of that stuff," she said.

Managers at the Argosy Casino, where the displaced residents were gambling, declined to comment and asked a reporter to leave the premises, referring questions to a local marketing executive instead. She could not be reached for comment.

Argosy Gaming Co., which is based in Alton, Ill., runs the three-deck riverboat casino in Baton Rouge and owns and operates casinos in several other cities including Sioux City, Iowa, and Joliet, Ill., according to the company's website. An official at the company's headquarters couldn't be reached.

Legalized casino gambling was approved in Louisiana in the early 1990s, though gambling was thriving almost from the founding of New Orleans. The city even once had a street named Craps, renamed Burgundy Street in the 1800s.

For some of those displaced by Katrina, the reason they gamble is simple: They enjoy it. Anthony ''Wolfman" Peterson, who lost $40 gambling and drinking the casino's beer, said: ''If they ain't got gambling in heaven, I'm going out by the other guy."

Sasha Talcott can be reached at stalcott@globe.com.