Las Vegas firm will own 100 percent of Kenner casino

Tuesday, July 15, 1997 | 1:49 a.m.

Treasure Chest is one of the state's most successful riverboat casinos outside of the Shreveport-Bossier area.

Boyd, which operates the casino, will pay $115 million to acquire the 85 percent interest, said Robert Vosbein, attorney and spokesman for the Louisiana investors.

Vosbein said the deal has been in the works for months.

Sale of the casino is contingent upon approval by the Louisiana Gaming Control Board.

"We have been in negotiations back and forth with Boyd as to whether they would buy us or we would buy them," Vosbein said.

He stressed that the casino will stay in Kenner and that none of the approximately 1,200 employees will lose their jobs.

Current majority owner in the project is Guidry, whose name has surfaced in reports about a widespread federal investigation of former Gov. Edwin Edwards.

Guidry appeared before a grand jury investigating Edwards in June and federal authorities have subpoenaed some of his records and correspondence.

Vosbein said the decision to sell to Boyd was in no way related to the investigation, noting that negotiations with Boyd have been going on for "many months."

Boyd is a publicly traded company with 14,000 employees.

The Treasure Chest pulled in more than $19.7 million from gamblers during the state's 1996-97 fiscal year, which ended June 30. Only the three casinos in the Shreveport-Bossier area, where the influx of Texas gamblers is strong and where the boats are not required to cruise, had better results.