Slot plan OK’d

Guy Coates

Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2002 | 9:46 a.m.

BATON ROUGE, La. -- The state gambling board has approved the layout for 1,494 slot machines at Delta Downs, turning the race track into a gambling palace that will compete with riverboat casinos.

The Louisiana Gaming Control Board's unanimous approval allows Boyd Gaming Corp. of Las Vegas, owner of the Vinton track, to open the slots by mid-February.

The Legislature approved slots at three race tracks in Louisiana several years ago to boost a race horse industry crippled by casino gambling.

The final legislation was approved in 2000 for the Vinton facility, for Louisiana Downs in Bossier City and Evangeline Downs in Lafayette.

Local voters also had to approve the move to slots.

Evangeline Downs owners are still looking for land in adjacent St. Landry Parish, since Lafayette Parish prohibits gambling devices.

Voters in St. Landry, Bossier and Calcasieu, home base of Delta Downs, approved the move to slots.

Louisiana Downs was recently sold and the new owners must get the gambling board's approval before offering slots.

Boyd Gaming, which has the Treasure Chest riverboat in Kenner among its holdings, bought Delta Downs for $125 million in 2001 after the local voters approved slot machines.

The slots will save Delta Downs, legislators told the board.

Delta Downs, one of the smaller tracks, had 3,500 patrons a day in 1992 before the riverboats cranked up. In the past year, the count has been just over 300 a day.

Fifteen percent of the slot machine profits will go to racing purses, helping the industry, state Rep. Arthur Morrell, D-New Orleans, who is in the horse race industry, reminded the gambling board.

William Boyd, chief executive officer of Boyd Gaming, told reporters later that Delta Downs already has hired 600 of the 1,000 new employees needed to operate a slots facility that cost $35 million.

He said he was not concerned about any further litigation.

The owners of the Lake Charles-based Isle of Capri gambling boat had filed suit to block the track's expansion but that suit was thrown out.

At Tuesday's board meeting, Brian Walker, an attorney for the Isle of Capri, complained that the floor plan for the nearly 1,500 slot machines did not allow enough aisle room for emergency exits.

The plan, noted the board, had been approved by state fire marshal V. J. Bella.

"The plan follows the frazzling law," Bella snapped.