{"id":173661,"date":"2021-05-14T10:10:06","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T17:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/louisiana-house-passes-st-tammany-casino-bill-moves-to-senate\/"},"modified":"2021-05-14T13:43:34","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T20:43:34","slug":"louisiana-house-passes-st-tammany-casino-bill-moves-to-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/louisiana-house-passes-st-tammany-casino-bill-moves-to-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"Louisiana House Passes St. Tammany Casino Bill, Motion Moves to Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Louisiana House has passed a bill that would allow voters in St. Tammany Parish to decide whether they wish to authorize commercial gambling.<\/p>\n

\"Louisiana
Louisiana House representatives discuss legislative matters on the chamber’s opening day last month. This week, the lower chamber passed a bill that would allow voters in St. Tammany Parish to consider ending the longtime ban on commercial gambling. (Image: Associated Press<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After stalling on Wednesday, House lawmakers yesterday voted 63-28 in favor of House Bill 702. Introduced by Rep. Mary DuBuisson (R-Slidell), the legislation would place a ballot referendum question before local residents during the next election. It would ask if they think the prohibition on commercial gaming in the parish should be lifted.<\/p>\n

\n

The effort is a result of Peninsula Pacific Entertainment (P2E) seeking to build a new casino resort in Slidell. P2E permanently closed its DiamondJacks Casino in Bossier City last year amid the pandemic. The decision resulted in the loss of 400 jobs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

P2E says the environment in Bossier City is too competitive. The California-based gaming operator believes Slidell and St. Tammany is far more attractive for its casino license.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Opposition to the casino issue is being led by faith-based and conservative family groups, specifically the Louisiana Baptists and Louisiana Family Forum.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Senate Test<\/b><\/h2>\n

Louisiana is home to 14 commercial casinos. All but one — Harrah’s New Orleans — are riverboats. P2E holds the gaming privileges to the 15th casino license.<\/p>\n

Each of Louisiana’s 64 parishes is free to determine if they want to allow casinos<\/a>. St. Tammany last voted on allowing gambling in 1996. The measure easily failed, 62 percent of local voters saying “No.”<\/p>\n

DuBuisson’s bill is expected to face another tough test in the Senate. A committee in the upper chamber has stalled similar legislation<\/a> introduced by Sen. Sharon Hewitt (R-Slidell) on concerns of bias.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Senators pointed to the fact that the tiebreaking vote in the Judiciary Committee in April was cast by Sen. Gary Smith (D-Norco). It was later revealed that Smith’s wife, Katherine, a lobbyist in the Baton Rouge capital, is currently working on behalf of P2E.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith said he was unaware that his wife was contracted by P2E.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She didn’t tell me,”<\/strong> Smith claimed. “Any involvement by her would not change my opinion that letting the people of that area vote on the issue is the correct vote.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It wasn’t known as of Friday afternoon where the Senate would direct HB702 for initial committee consideration.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Project Scope<\/b><\/h2>\n

P2E has presented St. Tammany with a $250 million blueprint featuring a 250-room hotel. The company is targeting land at the Lakeshore Marina near the Blind Tiger restaurant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The development would spur 1,600 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent positions, P2E suggests. The company has additionally sweetened the pot by telling the parish that it will donate $5 million to help build the $9 million Slidell ring levee that has been stalled since 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Louisiana House has passed a bill that would allow voters in St. Tammany Parish to decide whether they wish to authorize commercial gambling. After stalling on Wednesday, House lawmakers yesterday voted 63-28 in favor of House Bill 702. Introduced by Rep. Mary DuBuisson (R-Slidell), the legislation would place a ballot referendum question before local […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":173666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,13],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLouisiana House Passes St. Tammany Casino Bill, Moves to Senate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Louisiana House has passed a bill that would allow St. Tammany voters to decide whether they wish to authorize commercial gaming.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Louisiana House Passes St. Tammany Casino Bill, Moves to Senate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Louisiana House has passed a bill that would allow St. Tammany voters to decide whether they wish to authorize commercial gaming.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/louisiana-house-passes-st-tammany-casino-bill-moves-to-senate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-14T17:10:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-14T20:43:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/609be4b4edc88.image-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Devin O'Connor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@CasinoorgDevinO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Devin O'Connor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/louisiana-house-passes-st-tammany-casino-bill-moves-to-senate\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/louisiana-house-passes-st-tammany-casino-bill-moves-to-senate\/\",\"name\":\"Louisiana House Passes St. Tammany Casino Bill, Moves to Senate\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/louisiana-house-passes-st-tammany-casino-bill-moves-to-senate\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/louisiana-house-passes-st-tammany-casino-bill-moves-to-senate\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/609be4b4edc88.image-2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-14T17:10:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-14T20:43:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/02b4fee8814a4003903b0021bffb4ebf\"},\"description\":\"The Louisiana House has passed a bill that would allow St. Tammany voters to decide whether they wish to authorize commercial gaming.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/louisiana-house-passes-st-tammany-casino-bill-moves-to-senate\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/louisiana-house-passes-st-tammany-casino-bill-moves-to-senate\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/louisiana-house-passes-st-tammany-casino-bill-moves-to-senate\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/609be4b4edc88.image-2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/609be4b4edc88.image-2.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Louisiana House representatives discuss legislative matters on the chamber's opening day last month. 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