Boomtown Goes Landside: Why PENN Is Leaving Louisiana’s Riverboats Behind

Penn Entertainment announced it will move the Boomtown Casino in New Orleans to landside. This change is the 4th such landside move that Penn has announced in recent years, and continues a trend of riverboats going landside across the country. The new casino is expected to open in 2029, and the existing riverboat will be emptied and vacated.

It doesn’t really come as a shock, riverboats are a dying breed, as commercial casino laws have changed, and these venues are becoming less relevant in the modern gambling regulation landscape.

Louisiana was one of the mainstays for riverboat casinos, and authorised up to 15 riverboat licences back in their heyday. But this injection of funds also represents the importance of gambling in cities like New Orleans. They are not famous for their gambling venues, yet still, these cities are gradually picking up commercial gambling traffic, and operators like Penn are capitalizing on this.

Boomtown Casino Moves Landside

Penn Entertainment, which owns casino brands like the Hollywood, Ameristar, L’Auberge, Boomtown and Argosy chains, is going to invest $195 million in moving the Boomtown Casino & Hotel landside. This New Orleans gambling venue launched in 1994, and was the largest riverboat casino in Southeast Louisiana. In its heyday, Boomtown had over 1,500 slots and video poker terminals, with 30 table games. Expansions in 2006 and 2012 added hotel rooms, bar and dining facilities, and nightclubs. And in 2018 Penn Entertainment acquired the casino with its acquisition of Pinnacle Entertainment.

This expansion, if approved, is expected to open in 2029, and it will include:

• 140,000 square feet of new development
• 875 slots
• 45 table games
• a retail sportsbook
• multiple dining options

Boomtown New Orleans will also be renamed to Hollywood Casino New Orleans, thereby completely changing the casino experience. Of the brands under Penn Entertainment, each has its own special theme and style:

• Hollywood Casino: Penn’s flagship and most widespread physical casino brand
• Ameristar: Upscale regional casino and hotel properties
• L’Auberge: Premium resort and casino destinations
• Boomtown: Western-themed regional casino properties
• Argosy: Riverboat and regional casino locations

So now this plan to relocate and invest in the casino is still pending regulatory approval, but given PENN’s reputation and success with similar projects in recent years, the project is expected to be greenlit for development.

Penn Entertainment’s Strategy

As opposed to the big dogs, like Caesars, Wynn, and MGM Resorts, Penn could be described as more of a regional, or local, commercial casino operator. The company’s portfolio mainly lies in cities and destinations outside of the main landbased casino destinations in the US. It doesn’t really target the same audiences that head to the gambling Mecca Las Vegas, or the East Coast’s answer, Atlantic City. Instead, Penn spreads its portfolio into markets in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Iowa, Maine and West Virginia. There are lots of drive-to customers from surrounding cities or communities, and not just tourists flying in for casino resort treatment.

Some of its biggest and most recognisable properties include:

• Hollywood Casino Columbus (Ohio): One of PENN’s larger properties, with a substantial gaming floor, sportsbook, restaurants and a new hotel tower opened in 2026
• Hollywood Casino at Greektown (Michigan): A major casino in downtown Detroit, giving PENN exposure to one of the Midwest’s largest urban gaming markets
• Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races (West Virginia): A large casino and racing property that combines gaming with horse racing
• Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg (Indiana): A sizeable casino serving the Cincinnati regional market
• Ameristar East Chicago (Indiana): Another important Midwest property, located close to the Illinois border and Chicago market
• Hollywood Casino at PENN National Race Course (Pennsylvania): One of the company’s original and most important Pennsylvania properties

Penn’s Riverboat Casinos

In the unveiling of the Hollywood Casino New Orleans, president of Penn Entertainment, Jay Snowden, talked about the recent Penn riverboat casino landside moves.

“The new Hollywood Casino New Orleans will represent our fourth landside move in recent years, following the recent openings of Hollywood Casino Aurora and Hollywood Casino Joliet in Illinois and the expected opening of Hollywood Casino Council Bluffs in Iowa in 2028. As with our previous relocations, we expect our new facility to enhance the customer experience and strengthen the property’s competitive position in the New Orleans market.”

Argosy was one of the big names in riverboat casinos in the mid 1990s, and in 2004 Penn acquired it for $2.2 billion. With it, Penn became a key player in the industry, but the portfolio has slowly been replaced, repurposed or relocated onto land. Those 4 casinos mentioned in the announcement were all relocated, and Penn doesn’t have that many classic riverboat casinos left in its portfolio.

• Argosy Casino Riverside (Missouri)
• Argosy Casino Alton (Illinois)
• Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg (Indiana – formerly Argosy Casino)
• Ameristar Casino East Chicago (Indiana – formerly Harrah’s)

Louisiana’s Historic Riverboat Casinos

Riverboats were very much a part of Louisiana’s gaming identity. The state authorised up to 15 riverboat casino licenses, creating a strong market for gamers along the Mississippi River, Lake Pontchartrain and other waterways. This, however, changed in 2018 when Louisiana made it legal for licensed riverboat casinos to move onto land. So long as they were within 1,200 feet of the licensed water vessel, and if they got the regulatory approvals.

Louisiana’s 15 riverboat licences have not disappeared, but the boats themselves are slowly being phased out. Treasure Chest Casino (2024) and Bally’s Baton Rouge (2025) were the most recent to move their gaming operations onto land, while PENN’s Boomtown New Orleans is now preparing to become the next major riverboat casino to make the transition. To make it clear, these are all still licensed as riverboat casinos – but the actual operations don’t need to be happening on a water vessel, and the operator doesn’t even need to have one at all. So long as they stay within the regulated distance and their plans are approved by the authorities.

Louisiana as a Gaming Destination

New Orleans has quite a big gaming market, competing with neighboring regions like Biloxi (Mississippi), Baton Rouge, Lake Charles and Shreveport-Bossier. Of those, Shreveport-Bossier and Lake Charles lie in the Western regions of the state, making them a chief option for traveling gamers from Houston, Austin and Dallas. Baton Rouge, the capital, as well as New Orleans and Biloxi are all more coastal destinations, and the main commercial tourism is quite different.

Especially for New Orleans, which is associated with the birthplace of jazz, Mardi Gras, French colonial architecture and Creole food. So a lot of the travelers are not gamers, and this is backed up by the Louisiana Gaming Control Board annual reports. Besides revenue, property taxes, employment figures and money spent in investment plans, they also give figures for admissions and percentages of visitors from out of area (patrons who don’t live within 150 miles of the venue, or from another state).

And here is how the top 5 riverboat casinos in Louisiana lined up in the 2024/24 LGCB report (admissions counting all, and out-of-area patrons a percentage of that).

• Golden Nugget (Lake Charles): 3.1+ million admissions. 82.3% out-of-area patrons
• L’Auberge Lake Charles: 2.7+ million admissions. 74.4% out-of-area patrons
• Margaritaville Resort Casino: 1.25+ million admissions. 60.27% out-of-area patrons
• L’Auberge Casino Baton Rouge: 1.2+ million admissions. 23.8% out-of-area patrons
• Bally’s Shreveport Casino: 1.2+ million admissions. 75.7% out-of-area patrons

And further down the list:

• Boomtown New Orleans: 837,000+ admissions. 22.6% out-of-area patrons

Around 55.55% of visitors came from out of state across all riverboat casinos, but if you were just to look at the venues away from Lake Charles and Shreveport, that percentage shrinks to 20.06% (around 780k from 3.8+ million). And compare the visitor concentration of the central area to the Western gaming destinations, and the Shreveport x Lake Charles regions take up around 74.2% of the state’s entire traffic.

But Penn is eager to invest in New Orleans, and the recent Bally’s Baton Rouge Casino relocation also signals activity in the Gulf area. It is slowly picking up. The city may attract more local players at the moment, but as regional visitors and tourists encounter bigger and more developed riverboat casinos, the hope is that this can boost the commercial gambling scene considerably.