State’s final riverboat casino is set to open

Alan Sayre

Wednesday, May 25, 2005 | 9:31 a.m.

The 15th and final riverboat casino allowed by law in Louisiana opens Thursday as Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. unveils its $365 million gambling resort in Lake Charles.

The L'Auberge du Lac Hotel & Casino joins an already competitive fray in southwestern Louisiana for the attention and wallets of casino players from nearby Texas. The Lake Charles market already has a pair of two-riverboat complexes run by Harrah's Entertainment Inc. and Isle of Capri Casinos Inc., and a slot-machine casino at the Delta Downs race track in Vinton.

In addition, the Coushatta Indian tribe has a popular land casino and hotel on its reservation in nearby Kinder.

L'Auberge has put the 30,000-square feet of gambling space allowed by state law on a single-level riverboat, the only one of its type in Louisiana and the largest single-level riverboat casino in the United States. It will have 60 table games and 1,600 slot machines.

The casino's 26-story hotel has 743 rooms, suites and private villas. The resort also includes 26,000 square feet of conference space, shops and an 18-hole golf course designed by well-known golf architect Tom Fazio.

The casino opens to the public at 10 p.m. Thursday.

L'Auberge will close a long chapter in modern legalized gambling in Louisiana -- the opening of all of the riverboat casinos allowed by law. The first opened in New Orleans in late 1993, just over two years after the Legislature approved riverboat gambling.

In April, according to state figures, the Lake Charles market took in $40.3 million of the $189.4 million lost by gamblers at state-licensed casinos. The Lake Charles figure has been steady for some time, seeing little overall growth.

Isle of Capri already has tried twice to move its Isle riverboat out of Lake Charles, but plans to shift the casino to Cameron Parish and Jefferson Parish failed. Last month, the boat won just barely $1 million, making it the lowest-grossing riverboat in the state, while Isle of Capri's sister boat, the Grand Palais, took in $13 million.

Las Vegas-based Pinnacle has two other riverboat casinos in Louisiana, the Boomtown in Bossier City and the Boomtown in the New Orleans suburb of Harvey.