Louisiana board begins studying three proposals for final casino license

BATON ROUGE, La. - With a potential problem surrounding one applicant, Louisiana gambling regulators face three competing proposals Wednesday for the state's 15th and final riverboat casino license.

The Louisiana Gaming Control Board has not yet indicated how long it will take to decide where the gambling boat will go: Shreveport, Lake Charles or the Morgan City area.

The Isle of Capri, which operates two boats in Lake Charles and another in Bossier City, originally proposed a gambling project for the New Orleans suburb of Chalmette, where Circus Circus obtained a license but later abandoned a floating casino project. Last week, Isle of Capri agreed to become a minority partner with Louisiana Horizons, which is seeking the license for Morgan City.

The Morgan City area does not have a riverboat, although an Indian reservation casino at Charenton is a strong draw.

Horseshoe Casino wants a second boat in the Shreveport area, where its Bossier City hotel-gambling complex typically wins the most money from gamblers in the four-boat, Texas-fueled market. A fifth riverboat casino project already is under construction in Shreveport.

Pinnacle Entertainment, which recently has taken over Casino Magic and Boomtown casinos, proposes a fifth boat for Lake Charles which, in addition to a pair of two-boat complexes, also faces competition from a reservation casino in nearby Kinder.

The head of Horseshoe Gaming, Jack Binion, recently was declared unfit to hold riverboat casino licenses in Illinois. Louisiana regulators have said they are cooperating with their Illinois counterparts and will decide Horseshoe's suitability later for a license renewal in Bossier City.

Horseshoe and Binion have denied wrongdoing and say they will appeal the Illinois board's ruling, which could boomerang into other states where Binion operates.

Louisiana Horizons is partially owned by shipbuilding magnate Donald T. Bollinger, a friend of Gov. Mike Foster.

The license was granted in 1997 to then-San Francisco 49ers owner Edward DeBartolo Jr., but given back to the state after DeBartolo was summoned before a federal grand jury investigating the business dealings of former Gov. Edwin Edwards.

DeBartolo was put on probation after pleading guilty to failing to report a felony and testified he gave Edwards $400,000 for his help in securing the license. Edwards was convicted in May of federal charges alleging a widespread scheme to extort riverboat casino applicants during his fourth term.

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