New Orleans Mayor Seeks Vegas-Style Gambling to Make Downtrodden City Resurface

Mayor C. Ray Nagin hopes to attract tourists and their cash back to his ravaged city with an “out-of-the-box” plan to install Las Vegas-style gambling in the city´s biggest hotels. Mr. Nagin put forth the casino proposal last week as a way to jump-start New Orleans´ economy and help its people get back to work in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The plan calls for a large-scale gambling area in the city´s central business district, stretching from Interstate 10 on the west to the Mississippi River on the east. “Now is the time for us to think out of the box. Now is the time for some bold leadership, some decisive leadership,” Nagin said.

Mr. Nagin said gambling should be allowed in hotels that have more than 500 rooms, the majority of which are near the city´s famed Canal Street. The plan would require legislative approval.

Gambling is already allowed using video machines in roughly half of Louisiana´s 64 parishes, but there´s only one full-scale, land-based casino, operated by Harrah´s Entertainment Inc., in New Orleans.

Mayor Nagin made his proposal after Katrina virtually destroyed all 13 dockside casinos on the nearby Mississippi Gulf Coast. A bill to allow operators to rebuild land casinos close to shore has been passed by both the Mississippi House and Senate. Governor Haley Barbour has said he will sign the measure.