Gamblers, blues, and government revenue streams

From the Times-Picayune:

Louisiana's video poker revenue is up 17 percent even though there are 714 fewer machines in operation than before Hurricane Katrina struck....

Video poker revenue is up 9 percent in Plaquemines Parish, 50 percent in Jefferson Parish and more than 60 percent in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes. Dry parts of these parishes now shelter most of their pre-storm population, plus scores of recovery workers and locals displaced from Katrina's strike zone ...

In Orleans Parish, barely half the 1,670 pre-Katrina machines are running these days, and revenue is down 40 percent. St. Bernard Parish video poker revenue is down 83 percent, with most of its machines out of commission.