Columbia Sussex Corp. Riverboat Casino finally has a home. St. Mary’s Parish voted Saturday to allow the slot machine casino to move to the Amelia Area. The agreement is that the day the casino opens their doors, they will pay the parish $1.5 million. Plus, they will be paying property taxes, which end up giving the parish another $2.8 million. The money will be split between the school and other area things that need the money. The school is one of the major concerns as the casino will be located a couple of blocks from a school thus the need for more security in that area. 

The Belle of Amelia, as it is called, is on the docket for the Gaming Commission meeting, as there are still details to work out. The parish’s attorneys along with the representative from the slot machine casino will meet next week to talk about money, and the agreement that will set up the yearly payments to the parish from the slot machine casino. 

Turn out for the voting was small, only 54 percent of precincts came out to vote. Of those that did, 65 percent agreed to allow the Belle of Amelia to come there. Roughly 400 jobs will be created for the area by allowing the Belle to park there. It also adds another 200-300 jobs when you factor in the vendors for the slot machine casino as well. The casino has already been inundated with applications for those jobs.

Back to August Archive or Slot Machines