A House bill to give St. Tammany voters the opportunity to decide if riverboat gambling should be allowed in the parish is heading to the Senate Floor. Sidell Representative Mary DuBuisson’s bill passed on a tight 5-4 vote in Senate Finance.
Slidell Pastor John Raymond spoke in opposition, stating his area of the parish would suffer the downside of gaming while other areas would profit.
“The more wealthy and populated areas of Covington, Mandeville, Madisonville, and Folsom, should not be allowed to pimp out their step-sister Slidell for a five-percent revenue share,” said Raymond.
Spectrum Gaming VP Matthew Roob said a 2018 Mississippi Gaming Commission study noted 22-percent of their Gulf Coast casino customers were from Louisiana. Gamblers that Roob said have the potential to roll the dice in-state if a casino is placed in St Tammany Parish.
“This lost revenue represents over $80-million of potential tax revenue to the state of Louisiana. Revenue that could be recaptured by the state if a license were relocated from the Bossier market to the Northshore region,” said Roob.
But St. Tammany resident Linda Thornhill is skeptical about how gaming revenue is appropriated.
“Why should we believe in any of the promises, that they say that we’re going to get all the revenue. I mean what about the lottery. When we voted in the lottery wasn’t the money going to go to education. I don’t believe it did,” said Thornhill.
After the vote advancing the bill to the Senate floor, Baton Rouge Senator Bodi White reminded those who testified in opposition that it’s not a done deal yet.
“Look it’s not over, you still got a whole vote of the parish. I don’t know how to make everything perfect and level and equal on every bill. We do the best we can in this process and that’s what we do,” said White.
The bill now heads to the Senate for final passage.
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