Casino Observer

Coincidence is one of the devils in gambling. There’s a terrible temptation when several different things all happen around the same time. You think your luck’s in, it’s a hot streak, and so on. Perhaps you ignore the whole “statistical independence” thing and play one of the gambling systems. Maybe you’ve put superstition behind you and play the odds. But, for now, let’s just sit back with this first post and think about how luck can help a writer. For the record, I’m supposed to write about something that’s just happened — it must be fresh meat.

If you browse through the list of casinos on this site, you’ll come to the Amelia Belle Casino at 69 (you’ve got to feel sorry for the casino drawing 69 because it’s just another place and way to get f@@@ed but, hey, it’s only weird old guys like me associate numbers with sex). The management of the casino has just celebrated their first birthday (actually it was May 16 for the opening and May 18 for the official launch — it’s a riverboat, after all) but work with me on this, OK — we writers have to make our own luck.

So, how come a riverboat casino (not quite old enough to have Huck Finn in its history) is celebrating its first anniversary? Well, this floating crap game used to be called Bally’s. It was moored at the South Shore Harbor marina on Lake Pontchartrain in eastern New Orleans. Then the wind got up some as Katrina paid a visit. This broke the old “vessel” up and put her in for repairs.

But Katrina wasn’t done with her. While she was under repair, The Orleans Levee District tried to seize the her for nonpayment of rent. Greed (like gambling) can do terrible things to people. The original lease made the rent payable even if the Belle went down to Davy Jones’ Locker Room for a workout with the guys. Then, the lawyers woke up. When you’re on a contingency fee, you claim for every last cent. The complaint was amended to demand $20.6m in unpaid rent, $1.6m in unpaid fees, and $1.5m in damages because, when the wind came, the Belle rubbed up against the marina where she was moored and did some damage there (doncha just love the creativity of lawyers). While they were all fighting, the repairs were done, there was a change in ownership and a new name, and she moved up to Bayou Boeuf, located on Lake Palourde Road, St. Mary Parish.

So Friday, July 25 (finally a date to justify this blog post) saw the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals throw out the case. The reason? The judges thought the Belle was a “vessel” (like it could move through the water under its own power) but those clever marina lawyers had written a lease for land structures. There’s a funny thing about vessels. They need a maritime lease. The moral of this post? Lawyers who work for marinas obviously need a quick update on boat recognition — four wheels = automobile; one big wheel at back = riverboat.

All of which produced a major birthday celebration for the Amelia Belle Casino. The owners have created employment for some 400 locals and have paid the first two instalments of $1.5m under their ten year deal with the St. Mary Parish government. Yeh, yeh, talking of jobs and taxes is boring. The more important number is that, in its first year of operation, the casino had 1.1m customers walk up the plank into the vessel (marina lawyers walk the plank the pirate way). So, if you like the old world charm of a New Orleans riverboat, you should pay them a visit and join in the fun — BBQing marina lawyers every weekend.