The Louisiana legislature recently created the Riverboat Economic Development and Gaming Task Force to help Louisiana’s gaming sector better compete with casinos in Mississippi and Texas and Native American casinos in Oklahoma. Louisiana Casino Association Executive Director Wade Duty said the task force will be an “investigatory and advisory” unit that will look into all aspects of the state’s 22-year-old riverboat gambling industry and present its findings to the House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice and the Senate Committee on Judiciary B in November 2017.
In 2005, following the opening of Native American casinos in Oklahoma, Louisiana riverboat casino revenue plunged by 17 percent and have remained there, Duty said. Mississippi’s 12 casinos also have impacted Louisiana’s casino industry, and so have the larger out-of-state casinos closer to the large Dallas market, he noted, despite the uniqueness of Louisiana’s gambling boats.
The group will review current state laws and meet with citizens and businesses to determine how Louisiana’s gaming industry should evolve, Duty said. The group will study methods to speed up the regulatory approval process for games that now can take as long as 11 months to complete, and the cap on riverboat casino square footage, presently 30,000 square feet, also will be reconsidered, he added.
Duty also said the task force will review the current tax on promotional credits at the state’s casinos. “If a $10 promotional credit is used in Mississippi, there is no tax on it, but in Louisiana, the credit is taxed $2.50.”
No new casino licenses will be granted, Duty added. “There are two kinds of markets for licenses. You can have an unlimited market for licenses and the accompanying low tax rate, like Mississippi, or you can have a higher tax rate created by a limited license market like presently exists in Louisiana.”
The task force is chaired by state Senator Ronnie Jones. Members include Governor Jon Bel Edwards, Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser, Senate President John Alario Jr., Speaker of the House Taylor Barras, State Police Superintendent Michael Edmonson, Attorney General Jeff Landry, Louisiana Department of Economic Development Secretary Don Pierson and Duty.
