DiamondJacks Casino in Bossier City, La., has been closed in(p) since the oncoming of the COVID-19 pandemic inward March of 2020. It testament live at to the lowest degree another year before gaming resumes at the property.

Foundation Gaming, a regional cassino manipulator based inward Mississippi with a data track record of refurbishing hard put gaming properties, shoemaker's last month entered into a buy-sell arrangement with DiamondJacks owner Peninsula Pacific Entertainment (P2E). The terms will eventually ensue inwards the Foundation taking hold of the LA riverboat after purchasing come out P2E for an undisclosed sum.

Louisiana Gaming Control Board (LGCB) revealed yesterday that the dealings is proceedings as planned. LGCB Chair Ronnie Johns added that P2E marketing the cassino and gaming certify — as opposed to forfeiting the let — testament greatly expedite the clip it will use up to bring back unrecorded gambling.

If Peninsula Pacific Ocean would have got surrendered the license, Pelican State law would require the tell gameboard to undetermined upward a competitory summons process. With regulatory probes of the interested companies and background checks on paint officials, the mental process would feature potential taken several years.

Johns says Foundation fellowship officials testament lay out an in-depth refurbishment architectural plan to the table sometime next month.

DiamondJacks Timeline

Peninsula Pacific Ocean Entertainment unsuccessfully sought-after(a) to relocate its Pelican State gambling casino permit to Slidell simply northwards of New siege of Orleans amid the pandemic. P2E justified that the Bossier City marketplace has go oversaturated.

While the LGCB agreed to contract away on the move, the transpose required local favourable reception of residents inwards St. Tammany Parish, place to Slidell. But locals voted against the P2E delivery — a $325 million externalize called Camellia Bay Resort — during a 2021 Dec vote.

With St. Tammany remaining a non-gambling parish, and thus terminating the Camelia Bay scheme, P2E was told it must reopen the DiamondJacks casino or deliver its gaming privileges. Foundation Gaming plans to fetch DiamondJacks endorse to life, as it did with its II casinos in Magnolia State — Fitz Tunica Casino & Hotel and WaterView Casino & Hotel in Vicksburg.

“They’re a really reputable company,” Jasper Johns said of Foundation Gaming during Wednesday’s LGCB meeting. “They get a chronicle of taking hard-pressed properties and renovating them into often nicer and practically more viable properties, particularly in Mississippi.”

Renovation First

With DiamondJacks posing vacant for more than two years, Foundation reps say the belongings requires substantive investment before guests can return. The keep company told the LGCB that it testament submit a year or longer to restitute the resort’s 560 hotel guestrooms, encounter spaces, and restaurants.

Foundation also needs to purchase to the highest degree upcountry equipment after P2E liquidated many of the resort’s furnishings, including everything from commercial message kitchen equipment to guestroom lamps and flat-screen televisions.

Foundation also plans to use up vantage of the state’s 2018 law of nature that allows riverboat casinos to relocation inland up to 1,200 feet from their archetype barges. The new gaming space, Jasper Johns said as relayed to him past Foundation officials, will be practically more appealing.

The old legacy riverboats had real low-pitched ceilings and were smoky,” Jasper Johns said. “Going with the land-based property, they have the power to assign in a really high-tech, first-class ventilating system system of rules that’s a safer surround for the customer.

“It’s going to be a nicer experience,” Johns concluded.