Can Diamond Jacks transformation reverse declining Shreveport-Bossier gambling market?
The Shreveport-Bossier gambling market may never be "the next Vegas" as was once thought possible 30 years ago, but Louisiana's top gaming regulator believes the revival of the shuttered former Diamond Jacks Casino property can provide a spark to reverse a nearly two-decade decline.
Executives for The Cordish Companies, the new owner of Diamond Jacks, have promised to deliver a transformative project that will vault the property into a destination gaming resort after years of musical chairs ownership.
"We intend for it to be a game-changing project for the Bossier City market," Cordish Gaming CEO Rob Norton said in a previous interview with USA Today Network. Diamond Jacks has been closed since 2020.
Cordish officials have planned a groundbreaking Wednesday to celebrate their $270 million project at the Bossier City property they will reflag with the company's Live! Casino brand.
"I honestly think this development will grow the entire Shreveport-Bossier market," Louisiana Gaming Commission Chairman Ronnie Johns said. "That's been proven in the Lake Charles market. When the new Horseshoe opened there it expanded the market rather than cannibalize it."
Lake Charles is now the nation's No. 14 gambling market with Houston as its feeder, according to the American Gaming Association, while Shreveport ranks No. 20. No other Louisiana gambling market - Baton Rouge or New Orleans - ranks in the top 20.
Like Lake Charles, the Shreveport-Bossier market relied on a steady stream of Texas customers to fuel its boom in the 1990s and early 2000s, a parade of Dallas-Fort Worth gamblers coming in on Interstate 20.
A state report in 2003 called Shreveport-Bossier City "the most prolific provider of revenue to the state.''
But that was before competition began siphoning off those Dallas-Fort Worth customers, the biggest of which came from Native American casinos in Oklahoma.
WinStar Casino, the biggest casino in the world at 600,000 square feet, opened in Thackerville, Okla., in 2004, just an hour's drive from Dallas-Fort Worth, allowing gamblers who had been traveling to Shreveport-Bossier to cut their travel time by almost two thirds.
"WinStar has 8,600 slot machines," Johns said.
But Norton has said he believes the company can leverage the connectivity of the Bossier City property with Cordish's Texas Live! entertainment district nestled between the Texas Rangers’ Globe Life Park and the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium, providing a pipeline from the Dallas-Fort Worth market.
"They had 9 million visitors to Texas Live! last year," Johns said. "They know what they're doing."
Johns said customers who come to Cordish's Live! Casino in Bossier City will also spend time in other Shreveport-Bossier gambling properties.
He also said the other casinos are investing in upgrades in anticipation of the new competition from Cordish, which Johns said will elevate the entire market's attractiveness. He noted Margaritaville's recent opening of Drago's restaurant and said Horseshoe is renovating its hotel rooms.
"Everyone else in the market is stepping up to the plate with significant improvements," Johns said. "The combination of all of these things, I believe, is going to be a boost to the Shreveport-Bossier market."
More: Here's latest on Diamond Jacks Casino sale to Cordish, fate of the old riverboat in Bossier
Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.
This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Can Diamond Jacks transformation boost Shreveport-Bossier gambling market?
