PENN Entertainment has proposed investing approximately $195 million to replace the Boomtown Casino & Hotel New Orleans riverboat with a new landside casino in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana.
The planned Hollywood Casino New Orleans would occupy adjacent land in Harvey, on the West Bank of the Mississippi River. PENN expects the proposed development to include approximately 875 slot machines, 45 table games, a retail sportsbook and multiple dining options within roughly 140,000 square feet of new construction.
The company is targeting a 2029 opening, but the project depends on regulatory and local approvals. Its existing riverboat would continue operating during development and be vacated only after the landside casino was ready to open.
The proposal is therefore not a confirmed casino opening. It is a capital-intensive relocation plan that must pass regulatory review, maintain operating continuity and demonstrate that easier landside access can produce enough additional demand to justify the investment.
Hollywood Casino New Orleans Would Replace The Boomtown Riverboat
PENN announced the Jefferson Parish project on August 17, 2026. According to the company’s official Hollywood Casino New Orleans proposal, the new property would be constructed on land adjacent to Boomtown’s current operation.
The preliminary development program includes:
| Proposed Component | Announced Plan |
|---|---|
| Estimated investment | Approximately $195 million |
| New development | Roughly 140,000 square feet |
| Slot machines | Approximately 875 |
| Table games | 45 |
| Sports wagering | One retail sportsbook |
| Target opening | 2029 |
The current Boomtown property has more than 700 slot and video-poker machines, over 20 table games, a poker room and a sportsbook. Its existing amenities also include a 150-room hotel, restaurants and an entertainment venue.
PENN expects to retain that hotel when the new casino opens. This makes the project a relocation and gaming-floor redevelopment rather than a completely separate resort built at a new destination.
The proposed casino would operate under the Hollywood Casino name. PENN has increasingly used that brand for larger landside developments intended to replace older riverboat properties.
Customers should not expect an immediate operational change. Boomtown Casino New Orleans remains the active property while the proposal proceeds through approval, design and construction stages.
Louisiana’s Landside Rules Make The Relocation Possible
Louisiana’s commercial casino market developed around riverboat gaming, but state law now permits qualifying licensees to move gaming operations into nearby landside facilities.
A licensee can apply to relocate its operations to a facility within 1,200 feet of its licensed riverboat berth. The application must include a relocation plan, a detailed capital-improvement and reinvestment plan, and any additional information required by the Louisiana Gaming Control Board.
State legislation also treats an approved landside facility within that 1,200-foot boundary as a form of “riverboat” for regulatory purposes. Before gaming can begin, the facility must meet applicable building, occupancy, fire-safety and inspection requirements.
The Louisiana legislation governing landside gaming facilities requires inspections before operations begin, annually and whenever requested by the regulator. Approval of a relocation petition does not eliminate those subsequent compliance obligations.
PENN’s application entered the public regulatory process shortly after the announcement. The Louisiana Gaming Control Board’s August 20 agenda listed consideration of Boomtown New Orleans’ petition to relocate its gaming operations and modify its license conditions.
The agenda confirms that the regulator was considering the petition; it should not be treated by itself as proof that every project authorization, construction requirement or local approval has been completed.
That distinction matters because the announced cost, gaming inventory and 2029 opening date remain forward-looking. Final plans can change during regulatory review, permitting, procurement and construction.
Landside Access Could Change The Customer Experience
Riverboat casinos no longer need to cruise, but their physical layouts can still reflect the constraints of vessels designed under an earlier gaming model. Narrower floors, multiple levels and limited expansion space can make it harder to reorganize gaming areas or add amenities.
A purpose-built landside casino can offer a more open layout, clearer circulation and shorter routes between parking, gaming, dining and hotel facilities. It can also give an operator more flexibility to separate smoking and nonsmoking spaces, position customer-support services and modify the floor as demand changes.
Boomtown is located in Harvey, approximately 15 minutes from the French Quarter under favorable traffic conditions. The property serves the West Bank and competes for customers across the wider New Orleans region.
Its challenge is not simply attracting tourists already visiting the city. The new casino would also need to become more convenient for regional customers who might otherwise choose competing gaming properties, video-gaming establishments or other entertainment options.
A landside move could improve visibility and access, but a modern building does not guarantee sustained revenue growth. Initial curiosity can produce a strong opening period before visitation settles into a more stable pattern.
The proposed inventory also indicates that PENN is aiming for a substantial but regionally focused property. Approximately 875 slot machines and 45 tables would expand Boomtown’s current gaming offering without creating a destination on the scale of the largest integrated resorts.
PENN Is Repeating A Broader Landside Strategy
Hollywood Casino New Orleans would become PENN’s fourth recent riverboat-to-land project.
The company previously relocated Hollywood Casino Joliet and Hollywood Casino Aurora in Illinois. Hollywood Casino Council Bluffs in Iowa is expected to follow in 2028, before the proposed Louisiana development reaches its targeted opening year.
This pattern allows PENN to reinvest around existing licenses and customer databases rather than entering entirely unfamiliar markets. Each relocation also gives the company an opportunity to connect a newer property with its PENN Play loyalty system.
Chief Executive Officer and President Jay Snowden described the New Orleans proposal as part of PENN’s capital-allocation strategy. The company believes modern landside properties can improve customer experience and strengthen the competitive position of established operations.
The strategy still carries execution risk. Construction costs can change, opening schedules can move and customers may not respond to each relocation in the same way. A performance increase at one landside casino cannot automatically be applied to another market with different competitors and travel patterns.
PENN says it expects to finance the Jefferson Parish project with cash on hand, although it could use its balance sheet or other liquidity sources. That flexibility is relevant because the company is managing several capital projects rather than evaluating Hollywood Casino New Orleans in isolation.
The final return will depend on more than casino revenue. PENN must account for construction expenses, financing choices, operating costs, taxes and any revenue temporarily disrupted during the transition.
The Existing Hotel Reduces The Need For A Complete Resort Rebuild
Keeping Boomtown’s 150-room hotel open would allow PENN to concentrate much of the announced investment on the new landside casino and supporting amenities.
That approach differs from building a complete integrated resort containing a new hotel tower, conference center and entertainment district. Reusing a functioning hotel can reduce construction scope while preserving overnight capacity for casino customers and regional visitors.
It also creates an operational-design challenge. The new casino must connect logically with an existing hotel and the rest of the property rather than functioning as an isolated building.
Parking access, pedestrian routes, security checkpoints and service infrastructure will affect whether the combined property feels coherent. These practical elements can have more influence on repeat visitation than decorative features promoted during the opening campaign.
The current announcement does not provide a detailed breakdown of how the $195 million would be divided among construction, gaming equipment, restaurants, infrastructure and transition costs. Until that information becomes public, the figure should be treated as the estimated total investment rather than the value of the casino floor alone.
Jefferson Parish Will Need Measurable Economic Results
PENN operates five casino destinations in Louisiana and reports employing more than 3,500 people across the state. The company also says its Louisiana operations contribute more than $200 million annually in state and local taxes.
Those statewide figures provide context for PENN’s existing scale, but they do not establish the specific economic effect of the proposed Harvey casino.
A clearer local assessment would examine construction employment, permanent positions, payroll, visitor spending, vendor contracts and tax distributions attributable to the relocated property. It would also consider public costs involving roads, drainage, emergency services and traffic management.
Jefferson Parish officials will need to distinguish jobs retained from genuinely new positions. Preserving current Boomtown employment is economically meaningful, but it is different from creating an equivalent number of additional jobs.
The same principle applies to casino revenue. Some spending at Hollywood Casino New Orleans could represent new regional activity, while another portion could shift from the existing riverboat or competing properties.
This balance between private investment and public impact also appeared in gclubgod.com’s examination of the local costs surrounding the Gate City Casino expansion. Large investment totals attract attention, but long-term evaluation requires measurable outcomes after a property begins operating.
More Machines Require Stronger Operating Controls
The proposed casino would increase Boomtown’s slot inventory and more than double its current number of table games. That expansion would increase the volume of customer interactions, financial transactions and surveillance activity occurring at the property.
PENN and Louisiana regulators will need controls covering age verification, cash handling, game integrity, anti-money-laundering procedures, employee licensing and exclusion enforcement.
The design stage also provides an opportunity to make responsible-gaming resources more visible. Information about self-exclusion and problem-gambling support should be accessible from the casino entrance, gaming floor, sportsbook and loyalty-service areas.
Employees need training that enables them to respond discreetly when a customer requests assistance. A larger gaming floor should not make support harder to locate or require customers to cross promotional areas before reaching it.
Smoking policies and alcohol service will require similarly clear controls. The final floor plan should make operating rules understandable without depending on dense signage or confusing customer pathways.
PENN maintains an “exclude one, exclude all” policy intended to extend a customer’s self-exclusion across its casino and online-gaming properties. The effectiveness of that approach depends on consistent identification systems, staff procedures and enforcement at the new location.
The 2029 Opening Target Depends On More Than Construction
PENN’s proposal gives Jefferson Parish a clear outline: approximately $195 million in investment, 140,000 square feet of development, 875 slots, 45 tables and a retail sportsbook.
The unanswered questions concern execution.
Regulatory conditions, parish approvals, detailed design, construction pricing and financing decisions could all affect the final project. PENN must also keep the existing Boomtown operation functional while preparing for a transition that cannot interrupt gaming controls or customer-account administration.
If completed as proposed, Hollywood Casino New Orleans would move an established West Bank casino into a modern landside setting while retaining the existing hotel. That could improve accessibility and allow PENN to offer more games and dining options without abandoning the property’s current market.
The most useful measures will come after opening: stable visitor counts, revenue that lasts beyond the launch period, retained and newly created jobs, local vendor participation, and compliance systems capable of supporting a larger operation.
Until those results exist, the Hollywood Casino New Orleans plan remains a significant but conditional investment proposal—not a guaranteed economic outcome.
