Morris Rousse
March 23, 2007Harold Fuselier
March 30, 2007
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The owners of a new St. Mary Parish casino avoided a potentially costly delay in their opening date, as state regulators approved a waiver that could allow the riverboat to open next month.
The Louisiana Gaming Control Board approved plans by Columbia Sussex Corp., owner of the Amelia Belle, to use a temporary kitchen facility until construction of the boat’s permanent kitchen is finished in July n essentially a waiver of a rule that says a casino must be “substantially complete” before it can open to gamblers.
Failure to win board approval could have meant pushing the opening date back to August.
Fort Mitchell, Ky.-based Columbia Sussex plans to open the boat on April 18, said Joe Yung, the company’s director of development. The company had previously planned a March opening, but has run into delays, including the construction of the kitchen.
The Amelia Belle casino was formerly known as the Belle of Orleans and docked in New Orleans at Lake Ponchartrain. It was damaged in Hurricane Katrina in 2005, then moved to Alabama for repairs. Columbia Sussex moved it to Amelia in February.
