In Louisiana, the St. Tammany Parish council unanimously adopted a resolution rejecting a referendum on casino gambling in the parish.
A public notice in the February 26 St. Tammany Farmer indicated a bill to that effect would be introduced in the upcoming legislative session. Parish President Mike Cooper said he and council members were caught off guard by the public notice.
It was not determined who placed the notice, but the firestorm blazed throughout the parish after former state Rep. Reid Falconer, who ran unsuccessfully for the Senate District 11 seat in the fall, posted a picture of it on his Facebook page.
When commenters asked who placed the notice, Falconer replied, “Follow the money,” and posted a link to the campaign finance report of state Senator Patrick McMath, who beat Falconer for the Senate seat.
McMath said, “I can assure you if a casino bill is filed, it’s not going to be from me.” McMath said he has prefiled 11 bills for the upcoming session—none regarding casinos or gambling. He said he heard the same group that tried to move the Diamond Jack Casino from Bossier Parish to Tangipahoa Parish two years ago is behind the effort to put a riverboat casino in eastern St. Tammany. The House and Senate rejected bills that would have required a voter referendum in Tangipahoa Parish.
State Rep. Bob Owen, elected to the Slidell-area House District 76 seat in October, confirmed the same group wants to move from Bossier Parish and is looking at the Slidell area. He said he has been approached by lobbyist Ty Bromell to sponsor a bill. “I told them unless I had monumental support from community groups, the Slidell)City Council, the mayor, the parish president, that’s the only way I would support a referendum bill,” Owen said.
Owen said he recently spoke at a meeting of the newly formed East St. Tammany Business Alliance. “We had two-thirds in favor, and one-third that weren’t,” Owen said.
State Rep. Mary DuBuisson said she also has been approached about a casino gambling bill. She said she included the issue in an upcoming survey of constituents. While the area is very conservative, she said, DuBuisson believes the social climate may have changed in recent years. Owen agreed, noting the large margin of parish voters who approved sports betting in a referendum last year may indicate they’d consider a riverboat casino.
St. Tammany Parish voters rejected casinos and video poker in a local referendum in 1996, and in 2009 an effort by then-Parish President Kevin Davis to create an entertainment complex with a gambling boat in the Slidell area had massive opposition, mainly from faith-based groups.
