Casino Approved in St. Marys Parish, Louisiana

Voters in St. Mary's approved the casino proposition Saturday, July 15. In about three months, St. Mary Parish will be the new casino destination for Columbia Sussex Corp. riverboat casino to relocate to the Amelia area.

65 percent or 5,163 votes approved the proposition, the opposite 35 percent or 2,772 votes against the proposition. The proposition allowed the former Belle of Orleans casino to move to the Amelia area, and the casino will be renamed as Belle of Amelia.

St. Mary's Parish President Paul Naquin said, "We knew it was going to be a small turnout. The next step is they are going to have a project engineer on site Monday to look at the bulkheading and the parking lot. They are on the move tonight. They're not going to let the grass grow under their feet."

Naquin said the process to relocate the casino into the parish will start immediately and they will move quickly.

The casino boat will bring $1.5 million to the parish upon the first day of the operation. Naquin said, "The first day they open the doors, they are going to cut a check to the parish for $1.5 million."

A legal agreement will be drawn by attorney's for the parish and the casino next week that will provide the payments for annual basis.

"It's not earmarked for anything. It's just going to go into our general fund budget, and it'll be dispersed from there," Naquin said.

As of the moment the parish is discussing on how they will use the money, Naquin said. The first project that will be funded is for providing extra security for the Amelia area, since the riverboat is located a couple of blocks from a school.

Naquin estimated 600-700 jobs will be generated by the casino riverboat. About 400 jobs will be created on the boat casino. Plus extra jobs for the vendors factored in the casino. So far, he has received 350 applications.