Let the games begin.
Kim Ginn, senior marketing director for Pinnacle Baton Rouge, said a new casino being built by Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. on River Road is expected to be complete by December of this year.
Ginn said the casino — which will be Pinnacle’s fourth property in Louisiana — will house 1,500 slot machines, 51 gaming tables and a separate poker room.
There will also be three restaurants, a concert facility and more than 200 hotel rooms available to visitors, she said.
Ginn explained the casino will offer an environment visitors can’t find at existing casinos in the area.
“There isn’t really a gaming destination in Baton Rouge,” Ginn said. “This will really complement the other options in the area.”
Ginn said Pinnacle won the ability to build a Baton Rouge casino by local referendum in February 2008 and construction officially began in May 2010.
“We’re really excited about how quickly things are going,” she said. “So far, Mother Nature’s been good to us.”
The company announced the casino’s senior management team in January.
Naming the casino has been tough, Ginn said.
She said Pinnacle is working with three agencies to choose a name. She said the company expects to have chosen one by the end of this month.
“Once it’s selected, we’ll announce it publicly,” Ginn said.
She said the project will cost $357 million once completed, including construction.
Ginn said she thinks Baton Rouge residents will respond positively to the new development.
“We think they’ll be very excited and very proud,” she said.
Wade Duty, executive director of the Louisiana Casino Association, said the only problem he thinks Pinnacle could encounter would be if the water level in the Mississippi River isn’t high enough to lower the riverboats into the water.
“They’ll really need a high water level to get the barges into their permanent housing,” he said.
Duty said the LCA will be more involved with Pinnacle once the casino is up and running.
Aaron Schatzle, civil engineering freshman, said he’s not sure what to think about the Pinnacle casino being built but will visit it at least once to make up his mind.
Schatzle said he has visited two existing casinos in the city — the Belle of Baton Rouge Casino and the Hollywood Casino — and he’d like to see something different.
“Bigger buffets and more eateries would be nice,” he said. “Something like the casinos in Alabama and Mississippi.”
 
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Contact Rachel Warren at [email protected]