DiamondJacks Bossier Metropolis New Proprietor to Current Reopening Plans
DiamondJacks On line casino in Bossier Metropolis, La., has sat closed for the reason that onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020. It will likely be at the very least one other yr earlier than gaming resumes on the property.
DiamondJacks On line casino Bossier Metropolis in Louisiana has been fenced up and shuttered since March 2020. A Mississippi on line casino operator that’s assuming possession of DiamondJacks says it’s going to want a yr to renovate and reopen the gaming property. (Picture: KSLA)
Basis Gaming, a regional on line casino operator primarily based in Mississippi with a observe report of refurbishing distressed gaming properties, final month entered right into a buy-sell settlement with DiamondJacks proprietor Peninsula Pacific Leisure (P2E). The phrases will finally lead to Basis taking management of the Louisiana riverboat after shopping for out P2E for an undisclosed sum.
Louisiana Gaming Management Board (LGCB) revealed yesterday that the transaction is continuing as deliberate. LGCB Chair Ronnie Johns added that P2E promoting the on line casino and gaming license — versus forfeiting the allow — will enormously expedite the time it’s going to take to return stay playing.
If Peninsula Pacific would have surrendered the license, Louisiana legislation would require the state board open up a aggressive bidding course of. With regulatory probes of the corporations and background checks on key officers, the method would have doubtless taken a number of years.
Johns says Basis firm officers will current an in-depth renovation plan to the board someday subsequent month.
DiamondJacks Timeline
Peninsula Pacific Leisure unsuccessfully sought to relocate its Louisiana on line casino license to Slidell simply north of New Orleans amid the pandemic. P2E justified that the Bossier Metropolis market has grow to be oversaturated.
Whereas the LGCB agreed to sign-off on the transfer, the switch required native approval of residents in St. Tammany Parish, dwelling to Slidell. However locals voted in opposition to the P2E pitch — a $325 million venture known as Camellia Bay Resort — throughout a 2021 December vote.
With St. Tammany remaining a non-gambling parish, and due to this fact terminating the Camelia Bay scheme, P2E was instructed it should reopen the DiamondJacks on line casino or give up its gaming privileges. Basis Gaming plans to carry DiamondJacks again to life, because it did with its two casinos in Mississippi — Fitz Tunica On line casino & Resort and WaterView On line casino & Resort in Vicksburg.
“They’re a really respected firm,” Johns stated of Basis Gaming throughout Wednesday’s LGCB assembly. “They’ve a historical past of taking distressed properties and renovating them into a lot nicer and rather more viable properties, significantly in Mississippi.”
Renovation First
With DiamondJacks sitting vacant for greater than two years, Basis reps say the property requires substantial funding earlier than friends can return. The corporate instructed the LGCB that it’s going to take a yr or longer to renovate the resort’s 560 lodge guestrooms, assembly areas, and eating places.
Basis additionally must buy most inside gear after P2E liquidated most of the resort’s furnishings, together with all the things from business kitchen gear to guestroom lamps and flat-screen televisions.
Basis additionally plans to make the most of the state’s 2018 legislation that permits riverboat casinos to maneuver inland as much as 1,200 toes from their unique barges. The brand new gaming area, Johns stated as relayed to him by Basis officers, will probably be rather more interesting.
The outdated legacy riverboats had very low ceilings and had been smoky,” Johns stated. “Going with the land-based property, they’ve the flexibility to place in a really high-tech, first-class air flow system that’s a safer setting for the client.
“It’s going to be a nicer expertise,” Johns concluded.
