Third Baton Rouge Casino Overwhelmingly Passed By Voters
Voters in East Baton Rouge Parrish passed an initiative establishing a third casino license for Baton Rouge by a comfortable margin. Over 56% of the participants voted to allow Pinnacle Entertainment to open a casino in the southern part of the city. Pinnacle plans to put a 100-room hotel and an entertainment complex at the spot, along with a riverboat.
Opponents had battled hard against the proposal, saying that Baton Rouge's two existing casinos were as much as the market could support. Some pointed out that the city's population had undergone a recent decline, as evacuees from Hurricane Katrina had left town, either moving back to New Orleans or finding new cities in which to locate. Still, the capitol's population remains much larger than before the storm, when it was comfortably supporting both the Hollywood Casino and the Belle of Baton Rouge.
Pinnacle successfully argued that the existing casinos were merely trying to maintain a very profitable monopoly. Also, Pinnacle defended the location chosen, saying the downtown area the present casinos are in did not have sufficient space for the new project. Some felt a more distant location would draw patrons away from a downtown area trying to revive through entertainment options.
Part of Pinnacle's appeal to the electorate was a record of working with the community to prevent disruption. To those who thought a casino in south Baton Rouge would contain traffic headaches, the company pointed to locations in Lake Charles, Louisiana, as well as Texas, where Pinnacle constructed and paid for road improvements to prevent traffic buildup.
The new Riviere Casino will bring roughly 1200 permanent jobs, along with 700 construction jobs. It should allow convenience to residents away from downtown, as well as force the existing casinos to keep their boats refurbished and renovated. Including the revenue brought in, a new casino may be a perfect fit here.
