Yet Beynon said there still appears to be demand in the market. He said Pinnacle Entertainment, which owns L’Auberge, had the opportunity to build on the Golden Nugget location a few years ago but decided against it. It’s in the South, everyone’s nice.”Īnd for opening night, his 740-room hotel was booked.Ĭhad Beynon, a gaming analyst for Macquarie Securities, called the Lake Charles market healthy in terms of current casino visitors but said he was less convinced more outlets were needed. ![]() “You don’t notice when you cross the line and people are the same. “I look at Louisiana and Texas almost as one,” he said. Together, they draw millions of visitors each year.įertitta, whose parents hail from Louisiana, called the Lake Charles property “the most unique gaming opportunity in America.” When it came available, he said, he flew to Vegas and offered a $50 million nonrefundable deposit to then-owner Ameristar to get it. Less than 30 miles in either direction, gamblers can also visit the Coushatta Casino Resort in Kinder and the Delta Downs racetrack in Vinton. His newest property joins L’Auberge and Isle of Capri in Lake Charles. He operates them through Golden Nugget Casinos, a division of his privately run company. He later bought and rebranded a Trump facility in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and he recently opened a casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. The $700 million Lake Charles project is Fertitta’s fifth casino since he took over Golden Nugget casino and hotel properties in Las Vegas and Laughlin, Nevada, nine years ago. “Lake Charles has already hit the jackpot,” he said. Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta and a host of state and local officials officially cut the ribbon on the newest and perhaps glitziest casino there to date: the Golden Nugget.Īs smiling showgirls festooned in yellow feathers preened with ceremonial scissors, Mayor Randy Roach drew cheers from the crowd when he began the festivities by welcoming his “friends across the river.”Ĭhuck Kleckley, speaker of the Louisiana House, recalled his reaction when Fertitta bought the property for the Golden Nugget 16 months ago and presented his vision.Īnd Ronnie Jones, chairman of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board, said the influx of construction and casino jobs has been an economic boon. On Monday, the playground got bigger and more opulent. ![]() “We love to gamble,” said one of those visitors, TC Berry of Brookshire, who spent the weekend at the L’Auberge Casino Resort in Lake Charles. It’s barely a three-hour drive from the Houston area. What it lacks in Vegas pizazz, it makes up for in proximity. ![]() Over the last two decades, gamblers from Texas have helped transform this blue-collar petrochemical town in Southwestern Louisiana into a vibrant tourist destination anchored by waterfront casinos. LAKE CHARLES – They come in chartered buses and suburban sedans from Houston, Galveston and Beaumont, from San Antonio and Austin.īy the hundreds of thousands each year, they crest the Calcasieu River Bridge and enter a sparkling world where they can roll dice, feed slot machines and take a shot at fortune in ways that are illegal back home.
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