Section 6.(A)  Lotteries.  (1)  The legislature may provide for the creation and operation of a state lottery and may create a special corporation for that purpose whose employees shall not be subject to state civil service.  The net proceeds from the operation of the lottery shall be deposited in a special fund created in the state treasury entitled the Lottery Proceeds Fund.  Amounts deposited in the fund shall not be appropriated for expenditure in the same calendar year in which they are received.  The legislature shall annually appropriate from the fund only for the purposes of the minimum foundation program and no more than five hundred thousand dollars for services related to compulsive and problem gaming as may be provided by law.

(2)  A law providing for the creation and operation of a state lottery, once enacted, may be modified only by a law enacted by two-thirds of the elected members of each house but may be repealed in its entirety by a law enacted by a majority thereof.  If such a law has been repealed, the legislature thereafter may provide for the creation and operation of a state lottery only by law enacted by two-thirds of the elected members of each house.

(3)  No state general funds may be expended for the primary purpose of inducing persons to participate in the lottery.  However, state general funds may be expended for the purpose of reasonably informing the public solely about the following factors pertaining to the operation and administration of the lottery:

(a)  The type or types of lottery to be conducted.

(b)  The price or prices of tickets or shares in the lottery.

(c)  The numbers and sizes of prizes.

(d)  The approximate odds of winning.

(e)  The manner of payment.

(f)  Frequency and time of awarding of prizes.

(g)  Location of sites for sale of tickets or shares and sites of determination of winners and awarding of prizes.

(4)  No political subdivision of the state shall authorize or conduct a lottery.

(B)  Gambling.  Gambling shall be defined by and suppressed by the legislature.

(C) Gaming, Gambling, or Wagering Referendum Elections. (1)(a)  No law authorizing a new form of gaming, gambling, or wagering not specifically authorized by law prior to the effective date of this Paragraph shall be effective nor shall such gaming, gambling, or wagering be licensed or permitted to be conducted in a parish unless a referendum election on a proposition to allow such gaming, gambling, or wagering is held in the parish and the proposition is approved by a majority of those voting thereon.

(b)  No form of gaming, gambling, or wagering authorized by law on the effective date hereof* shall be licensed or permitted to be conducted in a parish in which it was not heretofore being conducted, except licensed charitable gaming which may be conducted in any parish provided it is conducted in compliance with the law, pursuant to a state license or permit unless a referendum election on a proposition to allow such gaming, gambling, or wagering is held in the parish and the proposition is approved by a majority of those voting thereon.

(2)  No new license or permit shall be issued for the conducting of riverboat gaming, gambling, or wagering operations or activities at a berth or docking facility in a parish in which such gaming, gambling, or wagering is then being conducted, unless a referendum election on a proposition to allow such additional gaming, gambling, or wagering operations or activities has been held in the parish and the proposition has been approved by a majority of those voting thereon.  In addition, no license or permit regardless of when issued shall be reissued, amended, or replaced to authorize the holder to conduct riverboat gaming, gambling, or wagering operations or activities at a berth or docking facility different from that authorized in the license or permit, unless a referendum election on a proposition to allow such gaming, gambling, or wagering operations or activities has been held in the parish in which the proposed berth or docking facility is located and the proposition has been approved by a majority of those voting thereon.

(3)  The legislature may at any time repeal statutes authorizing gaming, gambling, or wagering.

(4)  Notwithstanding Article III, Section 12, or any other provision of this constitution, the legislature by local or special law may provide for elections on propositions relating to allowing or prohibiting one or more forms of gaming, gambling, or wagering authorized by legislative act.

Amended by Acts 1990, No. 1097, §1, approved Oct. 6, 1990, eff. Nov. 8, 1990; Acts 1996, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 98, §1, approved Sept. 21, 1996, eff. Oct. 15, 1996; Acts 2003, No. 1305, §1, approved Oct. 4, 2003, eff. July 1, 2004.

*July 1, 2004.