Louisiana Restricts Casino Siting to Named Waterways

Casino siting in Louisiana runs through Title 27 of the Revised Statutes, and it works nothing like municipal zoning. Riverboat gaming is legal only on the specific waterways Section 27:43(B)(1) names by name: the Mississippi, Red (outside Rapides Parish), Calcasieu, Mermentau, and Atchafalaya Rivers, Bayou Segnette within Westwego, the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, Bayou Bienvenue, Lake Pontchartrain (the stretch south and east of I-10 in St. Tammany Parish), Lake Maurepas, Lake Charles, the Intracoastal Waterway outside Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes, and the Sabine River above the Toledo Bend dam. Adding any other waterway to that list requires its own parish-wide vote under Subsection B(2) -- the legislature does not get to expand casino geography by itself.

Even inside an eligible waterway, a parish or municipality can still shut riverboat gaming out. Section 27:93(C) lets 25 percent of a parish's registered voters force a local-option election by petition; a majority voting to prohibit gaming blocks any new licensed berth there. A rejection doesn't touch a riverboat's right to simply pass through the parish's waters, and it has zero effect on operations already licensed elsewhere in the state -- the vote is parish-specific, not statewide. Outside collecting the admission fee Section 93(A) authorizes, local governments have no independent power to license, zone, or otherwise regulate riverboat gaming; that authority sits entirely with the state.

Land-based casino gaming is even narrower. Section 27:241 caps it at one official gaming establishment statewide, contractually sited at the old Rivergate Convention Center site in Orleans Parish, with the state's contract expressly exclusive against any second land-based casino opening in that parish while it runs. The Louisiana Gaming Control Board administers licensing and enforcement for both the riverboat and land-based programs.

Berthing or operating a gaming riverboat outside the waterways Section 27:43(B)(1) lists, or opening a new berth in a parish that voted gaming down under Section 27:93(C), gives the Louisiana Gaming Control Board grounds to deny, suspend, or revoke the operator's license and refer the operation for prosecution as illegal gambling. A second land-based casino in Orleans Parish while the Rivergate contract runs would breach the state's exclusive Section 27:241 contract, not just a permit condition -- the remedy runs through contract enforcement and license action, not a local citation.