The Metro Council of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, is seeking to collect taxes on complementary rooms given to gamblers at the Belle of Baton Rouge and L’Auberge Baton Rouge casinos. The provision was introduced by the Department of Finance and the Office of the Parish Attorney.
Tiffani Delapasse, revenue manager for the city-parish, said the item is based on a Louisiana Supreme Court ruling earlier this year, stating Harrah’s Casino in New Orleans owed up to $43 million. The legislature passed a bill to settle the case for a $39 million one-time payment plus annual payments of $1.3 million for the next 32 years. Delapassee said, “This is still highly contested and there’s a potential for litigation.”
Wade Duty, executive director at the Casino Association of Louisiana, said the supreme court ruling against Harrah’s only applied to the land-based casino, not to hotels connected to riverboats. He noted if the city-parish can collect sales taxes on comp casino hotel rooms, then sales taxes could be charged on any item or service comped to customers as part of any loyalty program, like free meals. “That’s a door opening into a room that has no boundaries,” Duty stated.
