BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gamblers lost more than $234.8 million at Louisiana's 20 major gambling venues in December, a combined year-over-year increase of 14.4 percent.

Much of that gain came from the addition of a third riverboat in Lake Charles, which draws many of its customers from Texas.

State police reported Tuesday Baton Rouge riverboat casino receipts totaled nearly $22.85 million in December.

The state's biggest bucks came from Lake Charles' three riverboat casinos last month. Those receipts totaled $72 million, which was 59 percent more than was collected in December 2013 when Lake Charles only had two riverboat casinos.

Louisiana's 15 riverboats collected $172.7 million in December, which was 20.7 percent higher than combined collections for December 2013.

The Advocate reports the state's four horse tracks pulled in another $31.77 million in December.

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