St. Tammany Parish on Saturday voted down a proposal to build a large casino and resort near the lakefront in the city of Slidell after several months of government lobbying and a multimillion-dollar pro-casino political campaign.
The casino project was rejected by a 26-point margin, with 63 percent of voters opposing it. The measure was the only item on St. Tammany’s ballot. Voter participation in the election was over 30 percent, far higher than typically seen for a local referendum.
St. Tammany has never allowed casinos or truck stop video poker operations within its borders. The parish voted to prohibit gambling in 1996, when casinos were first starting to open in Louisiana.
But Peninsula Pacific Entertainment worked hard to reverse that ban this year. The gambling company has been trying to move a casino license in Northwest Louisiana to the southeastern portion of the state for years.
