Louisiana Supreme Court clears path for December 11 vote on casino

Judge orders that plaintiff’s objections will be better addressed after the election.

Slidell, Louisiana – just across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans – has come one step closer to having a casino after the state supreme court struck down an appeal court’s decision that would have derailed a referendum, slated for December 11, putting the matter in the hands of the people. 

Any legal questions surrounding the construction of the casino, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled, should be settled after the people of St. Tammany Parish’s vote. 

The vote concerns the plans of Peninsula Pacific Entertainment to build Camellia Bay, a $325m casino and hotel, that hopes to break ground at the foot of the Interstate 10 twin spans in Slidell. 

Early voting for the measure has already begun.  

Struck down by the supreme court was a challenge to the constitutionality of the election that had been filed by Charles Branton, an attorney out of Covington, and John Raymand, a local pastor. The plaintiffs had argued that they would suffer “irreparable harm” were the election allowed to go forward.  

Initially a First Circuit Court of Appeal had agreed with those seeking to stifle the normal process of democracy, saying that a trial on the project’s merits should happen prior to the election.  

St. Tammany Parish government, the body who put the measure on the ballot, disagreed and successfully petitioned the supreme court to throw out the circuit court’s ruling.  

Parish voters struck down a measure in 1996 that would have allowed casino gambling and video poker. Over the last 25 years, though, the landscape for gambling in America has changed dramatically; it is met with approval from vast swathes of the population and governments appreciate the boon to revenue that legal gambling allows.  

Cameron Saunders

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