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The question of whether Pinnacle Entertainment may move one of the riverboat licenses it is buying next to its current Calcasieu Parish resort will be on the Nov. 7 ballot, the Calcaseieu Parish Police Jury decided Thursday.
They'll vote next month on whether to urge state gambling regulators to keep Pinnacle from going through with the other half of its plan _ moving the second license out of the parish.
"I'm going to be adamantly opposed to any license leaving Calcasieu Parish," said Police Juror Francis Andrepont. "I'm certainly not opposed to moving one license from where it presently is on the lakefront to L'Auberge."
Pinnacle, based in Las Vegas, wants to move one of the licenses next to its L'Auberge du Lac resort and locate the other outside the parish. On Tuesday, the state Gaming Control Board approved the sale of both licenses and relocation of one, triggering the requirement for a local-option election in Calcaseiu Parish.
If voters approve the move from Lake Charles to the Calcaseiu River, Pinnacle would have 18 months to build its planned $350 million Sugarcane Bay resort next to its current one. The new resort would include a 400-room hotel, a new golf course and an arena.
Jason Billings, an organizer for International Union of Operating Engineers Local 406, said his union is "in complete opposition of the local option that Pinnacle is trying to seek."
While not mentioning it by name, Billings said his organization backs a group called the Alliance for Local Recovery and Development, which has said it offered Harrah's $77 million for its Lake Charles casino property.
Billings said rejecting the proposal would give the alliance another shot at the Harrah's licenses and downtown property.
"The legally authorized location for the Harrah's licenses ... is downtown Lake Charles," Billings said. "Only the voters can change this from this point is what I'm understanding. We see that there is no reason to pass new taxes to develop downtown Lake Charles when the casinos could pay for this already."
Bob Moss of the Central Trade and Labor Council said he was worried about the jobs and tax revenue that another casino would bring. Rejecting the local option would nix the Pinnacle-Harrah's deal altogether and keep both licenses in the parish.
"What we're really concerned about is losing a riverboat license," Moss said. "A riverboat license, we're looking at 1,500 jobs."
Larry Orlansky, outside counsel for Pinnacle, said studies have shown that Sugarcane Bay would generate more revenue and create more jobs than the two Harrah's boats combined.
"The notion that an approval by this Police Jury of an election call is somehow a death knell for 1,500 jobs in this area is really unfair and is inaccurate," Orlansky said.
Orlansky said Sugarcane Bay will be a "substantial project that is going to make that area out there even more of a destination than it is now."
"One of the conditions that was tagged on to that approval Tuesday was that the company invest $350 million in the project," he said. "They're not talking about just putting up a million dollars just to refurbish a boat and put it out on the water."
Parish attorney Allen Smith said the Police Jury does not have the power to force or prevent a move of a casino license. He said the state constitution requires the parish to "let the people decide" once the Gaming Control Board has authorized a move.
"Tonight all we're doing is what the constitution requires, and that is calling an election," Smith said.
Pinnacle has not said where it plans to locate the other gaming license. The board gave it 75 days to decide. Port Allen and Baton Rouge are considered potential sites.
Neither police jurors nor parish voters will have the final say on the second license. That will be left to the Gaming Control Board and the voters of whatever parish Pinnacle chooses to move to. |
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