Lakes loses Louisiana casino contract

Alan Sayre

Tuesday, June 26, 2001 | 10:41 a.m.

The Grand Casino Coushatta, a popular Indian reservation casino near the Texas border at Kinder, La., will be run in the future by the Coushatta Tribe.

Lakes Gaming Inc. of Minneapolis, which has managed the casino since its inception in the mid-1990s, said today that the tribe had decided not to renew the company's management contract, which expires on Jan. 16.

"We are separating our business association on a positive note, at a time when the tribe has made the decision to move forward with tribal management of the casino," said tribal chairman Lovelin Poncho.

Lakes will assist in a transition period that will go into January, said company spokesman Timothy Cope.

As a tribal casino that does not pay state taxes, the Grand Casino is not required to publicly report its revenue figures. However, industry analysts have said that it is likely one of the biggest winners among Louisiana casinos because of its proximity to Texas.

As a comparison, five riverboat casinos in Shreveport-Bossier City, which draw from Texas and do not have direct casino competition, won $65.8 million from gamblers in May. The four gambling boats in Lake Charles and within a short drive from Kinder, also located near Texas, won $28.7 million in May.

Industry analysts have said that much of the difference in the two riverboat markets is probably taken in by the Grand Casino Coushatta.

Lakes Gaming earlier announced that the company and the Coushattas had agreed on a new five-year contract. But the company said the tribe then decided to take over the management.

Lakes Gaming also once managed the Grand Casino Avoyelles on the Tunica-Biloxi reservation adjacent to Marksville. In April 2000, the tribe bought out Lakes Gaming and turned over management to a tribe-owned investment company, First Nations Gaming LLC. The casino recently changed its name to Paragon.

Cope said the Grand Casino Coushatta would be required to change its name by January 2003.

The tribal casinos and Lakes Gaming are not connected with state-licensed casinos in Mississippi, owned by Park Place Entertainment Corp. of Las Vegas and carrying the Grand Casino trade name.