Riverboat plan may expand

Wednesday, April 17, 2002 | 11:26 a.m.

LAKE CHARLES, La. -- The new head of Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. says plans for a $225 million riverboat casino resort in Lake Charles may be expanded after an evaluation is finished.

Dan Lee, former chief financial officer of Mirage Resorts Inc. of Las Vegas, said that he plans to come to Louisiana this week to look at the site, which is being leased from the Port of Lake Charles.

While Lee was with Mirage Resorts, that company had an option for the site, but later dropped it.

In an interview Tuesday with the American Press of Lake Charles, Lee said he would use "some of the people that we used at Mirage to look at these plans and make sure that we are building something that makes sense."

"They may very well come back and say, 'We should make this a little bigger.' I don't know the answer to that yet," Lee said.

Lee said the casino probably can take advantage of its proximity to Houston and he sees no problems in financing it.

Last week, Lee replaced Paul Alanis as Pinnacle president. That followed the company's disclosure that the Indiana Gaming Commission was investigating allegations involving prostitutes at the company's Belterra casino resort. Lee would not comment on the investigation.

Lee was involved in the development of three big Mirage projects -- the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Miss., the Bellagio in Las Vegas and the Borgata in Atlantic City. Mirage is now part of MGM MIRAGE after MGM Grand's purchase of Mirage Resorts in 2000.

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