In the battle royale over the fate of the Camellia Bay Casino, the truth has taken a back seat at times. Or, at least, different versions have competed for attention.
It’s been nearly six months since the St. Tammany Parish Council voted to let St. Tammany voters decide whether Peninsula Pacific Entertainment can build and operate a casino and resort near Slidell.
Since then, mailboxes have been stuffed with glossy papers and advertisements that look like newspapers. And supporters and opponents have taken to TV, paying for commercials to voice concern about the casino or extoll its promised virtues as the Dec. 11 referendum nears.
It hasn’t come cheap: Peninsula, known as P2E, has spent $3.6 million and had more than $1.4 million on hand as of Nov. 21, according to campaign finance reports it must file for its political action committee, Northshore Wins. It’s unclear exactly how much anti-casino groups have spent.
Artist renderings show the Camellia Bay casino resort proposed for the Slidell area.
PROVIDED ILLUSTRATION
Turnout for early voting, which ends Saturday, has been high for a ballot that has just one issue on it, St. Tammany Registrar of Voters Dwayne Wall said.But advertisements and posts on social media – particularly platforms like Facebook and Nextdoor where rumors propagate mostly unabated – have at times furthered untruths about the project. For instance, if some of the online posts are to be believed, soon there will be dozens of casinos across the northshore, including one in the center of Fontainebleau State Park near Mandeville.One anti-casino pamphlet mailed to Slidell-area homes claimed that the casino would cause the St. Tammany Parish School Board to lose substantial sales tax revenue as the casino drains local people’s disposable income. Chris Masingill, head of St. Tammany Corp., the parish government’s economic development arm, called the claims “propaganda meant to create additional disinformation and confusion.”
A anti-casino sign paid for by the nonprofit Watchdog PAC, LLC, in front a Slidell restaurant, one of many sprouting up along St. Tammany Parish road sides as the Dec. 11 election on a Slidell-area casino looms.
By SARA PAGONES
The advertisement, which alleged that the $180 million in projected annual revenue from the casino would actually come out of the local economy, fails to account for the expected money that would be redirected from Mississippi casinos, as well as the fact that less than half of the spending is expected to come from local visitors to the casino, Masingill said. It also fails to account for the casino’s spending in the local economy on food, beverages and more.
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An analysis commissioned by pro-casino St. Tammany Corp. projects that the $325 million casino and hotel will produce $78.3 million in salaries, 1,000 direct permanent jobs, over $7 million annually in various taxes and $7-9 million for the parish in an agreed upon 5% of revenue share, plus property taxes.Critics have questioned the study's conclusions and have also pounced on the differing revenue estimates touted for the project, which have fluctuated from $100 million to $180 million.But the different numbers refer to different things, said Jason Harbison, a P2E spokesperson. The $100 million figure comes from the Spectrum Gaming study commissioned by the state in 2019 that analyzed the gambling industry in Louisiana and ultimately recommended that one or two licenses be moved from the saturated Bossier-area market, where P2E has run the now-shuttered DiamondJacks casino. P2E has said that the casino would generate an estimated $150 million in gaming revenue and $180 million in total revenue, the latter of which includes hotel and restaurant money.Other rumors have echoed around social media. For example, some voiced concerns that a yes vote for the casino would open the floodgates to more casinos on the northshore.In Louisiana, there are a limited number of riverboat casino licenses that cannot be moved unless the residents of a parish approve it in a referendum, said Ronnie Johns, who chairs the state Gaming Control Board. The Dec. 11 referendum asks voters to approve moving a single license from Bossier City to the lakefront near Slidell. If another license was to be moved, it would have to go through the same legal system that Camellia Bay Casino is undergoing now, he said.St. Tammany Parish Mike Cooper and Council Chair Mike Lorino hastily called a news conference last week in an effort to debunk the additional casinos claim.Others have claimed that the parish will put up bonds to fund the construction of the casino, possibly borrowing up to $200 million. But at the news conference, Lorino said bonds have "never been discussed" and that he would not support it."It's a misrepresentation of the facts to try and confuse the people," he said.Various allegations have also swarmed around the business dealings of P2E, which bought the DiamondJacks Casino in 2015 in the midst of the casino's second bankruptcy. P2E CEO Brent Stevens said in a video from April that the state asked the company to keep the low-performing DiamondJacks Casino permanently closed “to allow for the rest of the market participants to enjoy whatever demand there may be for gaming in the post-COVID environment.” The casino announced it was shuttered in October 2020, after it had been closed for several months due to the pandemic. Mike Noel, who chaired the Louisiana Gaming Control Board at the time, said the state never instructed the company to remain closed. P2E had attempted to move its license before, to Tangipahoa Parish, so it was no surprise that the company wanted to relocate to a less deluged market, Noel said.David "Rocky" Rockett, director of the Greater Bossier Economic Development Foundation, said that the majority of DiamondJacks employees who lost their jobs in 2020 when the casino did not reopen after COVID shutdowns were absorbed by the other casinos in the area.
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Marie Fazio writes for The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate as a Report For America corps member. Email her at
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