Riverboat casinos bill discussed in Louisiana

A bill that seeks the expansion of riverboat casinos onto land was heard yesterday by the full Senate.

US.- The full Senate of Louisiana discussed a bill on Monday that would allow riverboat casinos to expand onto land. The bill seeks the removal of the restrictions for Louisiana’s 15 floating gambling halls.

Wade Duty, Louisiana Casino Association executive director, said that if the state gets more profitable casinos it will collect more revenue. “Having these boats on the water does not necessarily lend itself to a good revenue base for the state and also predictable jobs,” he said, and added that Louisiana is the only state that requires gambling facilities to be seaworthy.

“Being able to get these boats off the water and into a land configuration improves not only your predictability as far as maintenance, but not only the attractiveness for the customer,” said Duty.

While the bill’s sponsor, Lake Charles Senator Ronnie Johns, said that the bill doesn’t expand gambling, Louisiana Family Forum President Gene Mills admitted that it’s an ambiguous statement. “It does increase their square footage, their gaming area as well as their gaming opportunities, so its undeniably an expansion, not in the terms of licence, but in terms of opportunity.”

 “It’s the final step of the evolution in the riverboats becoming land-based casinos and that’s just an impermissible objective in the state of Louisiana,” Mills added.