Louisiana’s DiamondJacks Casino could reopen after Slidell proposal rejected

After losing the ballot for a relocation, Peninsula Pacific Entertainment (P2E) has 60 days to reopen DiamondJacks Casino or it will lose its gaming license.

US.- After voters in Louisiana’s St Tammany Parish rejected Peninsula Pacific Entertainment’s (P2E) proposed $325m Camellia Bay Resort casino complex near Slidell, the company will have to move soon if it wants to keep its gaming licence.

P2E wanted to relocate its gaming privileges from Bossier City to a site along Lake Pontchartrain. The operator shuttered DiamondJacks in Bossier City more than a year and a half ago arguing that the Shreveport area casino market was oversaturated.

In September, the Louisiana Gaming Control Board (LGCB) passed a resolution that would have allowed P2E to move its Bossier City gaming licence to Slidell if St Tammany voters welcomed the development. Since residents have rejected the motion, the LGCB ordinance compels that gaming recommence aboard the DiamondJacks riverboat gaming vessel, also known as the Mary Margaret. within 60 days of the vote.

That means DiamondJacks, or a casino under another name on the Mary Margaret, must restart gaming operations on or before February 9, 2022.

“Failure to meet any deadline provided … or to timely receive an extension from the Board may result in forfeiture of all privileges to the license,” the LGCB resolution explains.

LGCB Chair Ronnie Johns said he thinks P2E will reopen DiamondJacks and said the board may give them “a little more time than the 60 days to get back up and running.”

DiamondJacks has been shut since May 2020, when it was announced that it would not reopen after pandemic restrictions were lifted. In October, the casino laid off 349 employees and held a liquidation sale, offloading everything from the kitchen and laundry equipment to flat-screen TVs and stage lights.

See also: St Tammany Parish residents vote against casino proposal