Riverboat Gambling Louisiana
Like in Mississippi, casinos are usually riverboat casinos, but they are so big and unwieldy that they would never actually move. They are over water to satisfy the requirements of the law only. In the New Orleans area, you could go to Boomtown in Harvey or Treasure Chest in Kenner, but honestly, they are blown away by Harrah's as a facility. Casino giant Caesars Entertainment Inc. Announced Tuesday that it would offload the Belle of Baton Rouge riverboat casino from its portfolio of properties. The company has entered into a definitive agreement to sell the Baton Rouge, Louisiana gambling venue to CQ Holding Company, Inc. (Casino Queen) for an undisclosed amount.
In Caldwell v. St. Charles Gaming (No. 2019-CC-1238), the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that a permanently moored riverboat casino engaged in dockside gaming is not a “vessel” under either the Jones Act or the General Maritime Law. Caldwell was employed as a technician by the Grand Palais Casino in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and was allegedly injured when the gangway attached to the riverboat casino collapsed. The casino had been moored in the same location since 2001 and operated using shoreside utilities.
The lower court’s determination that the casino was a vessel was reversed by the Louisiana Supreme Court. The lower court’s decision raised the possibility that casino employees might qualify as Jones Act seamen and be entitled to traditional remedies granted to seamen, including maintenance and cure, the warranty of seaworthiness, and the right to sue their employer for negligence. The lower court’s decision also conflicted with other Louisiana decisions holding that permanently moored riverboat casinos are not vessels and with the US Supreme Court’s decision in Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach, Florida, 568 US 115 (2013), which recognized that “a water craft is not ‘capable of being used’ for maritime transport in any meaningful sense if it has been permanently moored.”
In Caldwell, the Louisiana Supreme Court focused on the US Supreme Court’s decision in Lozman and examined the primary purpose of the casino, i.e., gaming. The Court recognized that the casino’s primary purpose was not maritime navigation or the transportation of people or things over water. Although the casino was originally designed for navigation, it was no longer used in maritime transportation. The Court found it significant that the casino had been “moored indefinitely to provide and maintain its primary purpose of gaming activities.”
Caldwell is significant because it resolves the classification of permanently moored Louisiana riverboat casinos under federal maritime law. Although such a riverboat casino is not a vessel for purposes of federal maritime law, it nevertheless qualifies as a vessel under the Louisiana Gaming Control Law. While not expressly stated in Caldwell, the Court’s classification of a riverboat casino as a vessel under the Louisiana Gaming Control Law apparently had no bearing on whether that casino qualifies as a vessel in navigation under federal maritime law.
Riverboat Gambling In Louisiana
Tom Reeg was not impressed with the Belle of Baton Rouge when he was primary Eldorado Resorts and experienced the Louisiana-based mostly riverboat on line casino in his portfolio. It’s no shock, then, that Reeg, who took around as the CEO of the new Caesars Leisure corporation right after Eldorado and the primary Caesars merged earlier this yr, is satisfied to see it go. The 10-story floating casino has been marketed to a holding firm for an undisclosed total of cash.
Caesars reached an arrangement to unload its working rights to the Belle of Baton Rouge to CQ Holding Enterprise, which is guiding the Casino Queen brand name. Gaming and Leisure Homes Inc. (GLPI), which has owned the actual estate belongings, will proceed to hold on to its portion of the casino, and On line casino Queen will proceed generating the rent payments that experienced been aspect of Caesars’ yearly costs. As lengthy as regulators really do not uncover any purpose to hold off the sale, the last paperwork will be signed someday around the center of following 12 months.
Reeg apparently never appreciated the home and viewed it as an eyesore amid Eldorado’s products and solutions. When he appeared prior to the Louisiana Gaming Manage Board (LGCB), as CEO of Eldorado, this previous January to receive the regulator’s acceptance for the merger with Caesars, he spelled out that the residence was in these kinds of undesirable condition that he wasn’t even willing to devote the evening in one particular of its hotel rooms. He advised the LGCB for the duration of the hearing, “The point that I stayed at [Penn National Gaming’s] L’Auberge final evening is a remark on our perspective of the state of the Belle as it sits today.”
Eldorado had now gotten rid of its Eldorado Resort & On line casino in Shreveport ahead of the Caesars acquisition, leaving it with 5 attributes in Louisiana. Moreover the Belle of Baton Rouge, these consist of Isle of Capri, Harrah’s Louisiana Downs, Harrah’s New Orleans and Horseshoe Bossier Town. The Louisiana Downs house is currently on the chopping block, as nicely. That house is set to go to Rubico Acquisition Corp. for around $22 million.
While there formerly had not been strategies to reduce its state footprint any more, COVID-19 may possibly pressure Caesars to rethink its Louisiana method. Horseshoe Bossier Metropolis has taken the most important strike in the condition from the coronavirus as its income has been slice virtually in half. It has currently forever closed its eating amenities and enable furloughed employees go, and Caesars has to be questioning the merits of holding the property going.
Riverboat Gambling Ky
When Reeg satisfied with regulators in the point out to talk about the tie-up involving Eldorado and Caesars, he stated that the enterprise was prepared to spend $500 million throughout 4 several years to revamp its attributes in the state. It is possible that the business will need to have to change that determine, and it isn’t very clear if Casino Queen strategies on investing any dollars to make the Belle of Baton Rouge rather when again.