17/10/2001
State Gaming Control Board voted on Tuesday to provide the state's last riverboat gaming license to Pinnacle Entertainment.
At the State capitol Gaming commissioners took the action in their regular meeting.
The board voted 6-3 to give the 15th license to Pinnacle but just if it agree to certain conditions set forth by the board.
Board Chairman Hillary Crain said at Tuesday's meeting that his office and the State Police would meet with Pinnacle officials in the next few weeks to hammer out the conditions Pinnacle needs to meet.
Pinnacle proposed $220 million casino resort on 175 acres in Lake Charles near the Texas/Louisiana border. It will have 20-story hotel, 18-hole golf course, pavilion and entertainment hall, parking garage and a riverboat casino.
On Nov. 20 the board will gather again to formally issue the conditions to Pinnacle. When the casino company accepts the conditions, the state's last gaming license is officially theirs.
Along with several of the conditions is a local option election in the community be held in January is to make sure the public supports the project and that Pinnacle has to build the whole casino resort before it can be open.
Pinnacle President Paul Alanis has agreed the condition. The most important coup for Lake Charles is the reward of the 15th gaming license as of the economic impact the proposed casino resort project will have in Calcasieu Parish (county).
Port officials have called it the largest development project in the port's history. It will create 1,522 permanent jobs with a $34.1 million payroll. It will take about two years to build it.
Lake Charles casino resort will be a replica of Pinnacle's Belterra Casino Resort that opened last October in Indiana near Cincinnati, Ohio.
The estimate is that the project will generate over $7 million a year in local gaming taxes and attract about 2.5 million patrons a year.
Horseshoe Gaming and the Isle of Capri/Louisiana Horizons were the other candidates for the license.
Horseshoe proposed a $123 million casino facility in Shreveport. The Isle of Capri/Louisiana Horizons proposed a $45 million casino complex near Morgan City.
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