In a unanimous vote, the Kenner, Louisiana City Council approved a new lease agreement with Treasure Chest Casino allowing the venue to move ashore.
A 2018 law passed by the state legislature created a process for the state’s 15 floating casinos to move off riverboats and become land-based up to 1,200 feet away from their floating berths.
The new 25-year lease provides five 10-year renewals and gives operator Boyd Gaming the right to build a new facility on the current site of the casino’s parking lot.
Kenner Mayor Ben Zahn said he expects the city to benefit from the move since its budget largely depends on Treasure Chest revenue. “The numbers of passengers and visitors will go up. That helps capital projects in the city as well as the police,” he said.
He added more traffic at the Treasure Chest could provide a boost to Williams Boulevard, where the Treasure Chest is located. The area, known as Laketown, also includes the Pontchartrain Center, a hotel, boat launches and a fishing pier. “It makes Laketown more inviting. It changes Williams Boulevard,” Zahn stated.
Before the pandemic, the city received around $3.6 million in annual revenue from the Treasure Chest. That figure dropped in the past two years, but city leaders project $3.7 million in casino revenue for the 2021-2022 fiscal year. About one-quarter of that will go toward the police department, one-third to capital projects and the remainder divided between city council districts and debt reduction.
Since the start of the current fiscal year, more than 636,000 people have visited the Treasure Chest, which opened in 1994.
