Following St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana voters’ rejection Pacific Peninsula Entertainment’s proposed $325 million Camellia Bay casino near Slidell, the company now has until February 9, 2022 to decide if it will reopen the Diamond Jacks riverboat casino In Bossier City, which It purchased in 2016, or surrender its license to the state. The casino ballot Issue failed with 37,664 no votes and 22,031 yes votes, or 63 percent against and 37 percent for.
Louisiana Gaming Control Board Chairman Ronnie Johns said, “We want to put this license back into commerce.” It’s one of the state’s 15 riverboat casino licenses. P2E spokesman Jay Connaughton stated, “Our license is a very valuable asset to both us and the state as a whole, and we look forward to working with the Gaming Control Board to examine the paths forward that are best for everyone involved. There are multiple potential directions. The decision of ‘what next’ is complicated and will likely take some time to dive into all the details and implications. Our goal is to utilize it to do good for everyone involved.”
Company officials have considered reopening Diamond Jacks Casino in Bossier City. In September, P2E Chairman Brent Stevens told the Gaming Control Board, If the ballot Issue failed, “We have explored and will continue to explore the opportunity to redevelop what exists there in the Diamond Jacks into a land-based facility and that is something we’d move forward with.”
Diamond Jacks was permanently shuttered by P2E In May 2020, within hours of Governor John Bel Edwards’ order to reopen casinos, which had been closed since March due to Covid-19. Diamond Jacks produced nearly the lowest revenue In Louisiana. The closure caused 350 employees to be laid off. Stevens tried to move the license to land next to the Tangipahoa River In 2018, but the bill calling for a referendum failed In the Senate.
Earlier this year, the state legislature passed a bill allowing a referendum on moving the license to St. Tammany Parish. The Gaming Control board inserted into the resolution “in the event of the negative vote of the majority of the voters in St. Tammany Parish in the local option election to be conducted on November 13, 2021, to recommence gaming operations upon the vessel Mary Margaret within 60 days of the election.”
P2E purchased land for Camellia Bay for $14 million and donated $100,000 for initial planning of a youth sports center and $1 million for Hurricane Ida relief. It reported $5 million in contributions for the referendum campaign.
Founded in 1999, the Richmond, Los Angeles-based P2E owns 14 regionally based casinos and six hotels around the U.S., including controlling interest in Evangeline Downs in Lafayette and the Amelia Belle Casino in St. Mary Parish.
