Casino news source: Bossier Press - http://www.bossierpress.com/
Louisiana’s casinos may be in jeopardy
Written by Staff
Friday, 15 September 2006
It is pretty much a sure bet. Someday, there will be casinos in Texas. Sooner than later, Mississippi casinos will be fully operational again. And, if we don’t address proactively, the casinos in Louisiana will suffer greatly.
On Tuesday, Riverboat casino officials told regulators at a closed-door meeting that the state should consider cutting gambling taxes and perhaps moving floating casinos off the water to allow the industry to compete in the future, according to a report in The (Baton Rouge) Advocate.
“No consensus was reached. What we agreed on is concepts to be pursued further,” said Wade Duty, executive director of the Casino Association of Louisiana, which represents riverboat casinos.
Executives with casinos and racetracks around the state met with legislators, regulators and bureaucrats at what was billed as a “Casino Gaming Summit.”
Fifty-two people signed the attendance sheet for the meeting, which was not open to the public but was held at a conference room in state Attorney General Charles Foti’s office.
The meeting was a first step in a long process to study the competitive situation of gambling, Foti said. Foti left the meeting after giving opening remarks.
Participants at the summit discussed challenges facing the gambling industry, particularly the threat caused by Mississippi allowing casinos to rebuild on land instead of over water after Hurricane Katrina.
Mississippi regulators also removed restrictions to allow 100,000-square-foot, Las Vegas-style gambling houses.
“We’re bleeding profusely into Mississippi. If you maintain the status quo, Louisiana will lose the casinos that you have now,” Duty said.
Casinos provide thousands of jobs in the state of Louisiana, but what got the attention of public officials was the potential loss of tax revenue to the state.
Riverboats provide $341 million in revenue to the state government per year. Harrah’s New Orleans land-based casino, slot machines at three horserace tracks, video poker machines and the state lottery bring in another $401 million.
Duty said revenues at Louisiana’s facilities increased 40 percent after Hurricane Katrina shut down all 12 casinos on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. But those numbers have steadily dropped.
Nine of the Mississippi’s casinos have reopened. The other three are being renovated. And $5 billion worth of new casino resort projects have been announced in and around Biloxi.
According to Duty, the biggest obstacle to competition with Mississippi is the 21.5 percent state tax imposed on the money that casinos win from their customers.
“We would like to see Louisiana recognize that it essentially has priced itself out of the market with its tax rate,” Duty said. Casino operators would like the state to consider bringing taxes in line with what other states charge.
Mississippi charges 8 percent tax. Nevada taxes at 6.75 percent and New Jersey has a sliding scale that tops out at 9.25 percent. But operations in those states are expected to help pay for other projects, such as widening streets near their casinos, that Louisiana doesn’t require.
Regardless of one’s personal moral view of gambling, the fact remains that it is one of Louisiana’s biggest industries now. Just like any other industry in our state, Gambling should have every opportunity to compete. If this were a discussion about an automotive plant, there would be no question about giving a tax break to keep it competitive.
Looking at this from a economic development standpoint, we have no choice but to address the tax burden on casinos.
When Louisianians passed riverboat gaming more than a decade ago, they also committed to support that industry. That commitment will soon be tested. We encourage our state elected officials, both the ones in office and the ones to be elected in the coming days, to look at this as a business decision.
If we don’t lower the tax burden on our casinos soon, there may be no taxes to collect from them – period. |
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