Louisiana’s DiamondJacks Casino requests extension for reopening
DiamondJacks Casino and Resort has asked the Louisiana Gaming Control Board for an extension on the deadline the Bossier City facility has to reopen its doors.
US.- Peninsula Pacific Entertainment (P2E) has to make a decision as soon as possible to determine what to do with its DiamondJacks Casino and Resorts.
Last December, voters in Louisiana’s St Tammany Parish rejected a referendum that would have allowed the company to move its licence to Slidell.
The operator shuttered DiamondJacks in Bossier City more than a year and a half ago arguing that the Shreveport area casino market was oversaturated.
After the proposal was rejected, the casino operator had 60 days to reopen the casino in Bossier City, or P2E could lose its gaming licence. However, the company is running out of time.
DiamondJacks, or a casino under another name on the Mary Margaret, must restart gaming operations on or before February 9.
The LGCB resolution explained: “Failure to meet any deadline provided … or to timely receive an extension from the Board may result in forfeiture of all privileges to the licence.”
In order to avoid this, DiamondJacks Casino and Resort has requested an extension on the amount of time the Bossier City facility has to reopen its doors.
The chairman of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board, Ronnie Johns, said that the request has not yet been approved by the board and that the matter will be discussed at the next scheduled meeting on Wednesday, January 20.
He said the casino will present its reopening plan on February 17. The extension will likely be for about a month. Johns said he will recommend the board approve the extension at the upcoming meeting.
“It is my belief that DiamondJacks be given every opportunity to present the Board a realistic plan or reopening with a larger, nicer, and overall better facility than what is there now,” Johns said in a statement emailed to KSLA.
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
