The Treasure Chest casino in Kenner has permission to come ashore.
A new state law now allows Louisiana's 15 riverboat casinos to move on to land, 1,200 feet from their current location on the water. The casinos can also exceed the current cap of 30,000 square feet of gambling space.
Treasure Chest customers Eyewitness News spoke with support the idea.
"This is an ideal area for development," customer Pete Chaukalese said. "As long as the public doesn't have to pay for it."
"A lot more community development to happen," customer Erroll Hogan said. "More people will have more jobs."
One gambler said the Treasure Chest is due for an upgrade.
"They've been here so long and they wouldn't even enlarge the boat," Jerry Newchurch said. "It's crammed back in there a lot of times."
The Treasure Chest pays the city of Kenner $2.50 for every person who boards the boat. Last year, that amounted to more than $4.7 million.
Mayor Ben Zahn says he's discussed the potential of a land-based casino with casino owner Boyd Gaming.
"It would change the landscape out here," Zahn said. "When you have a land-base operation, obviously the footprint increases. When the footprint enlarges, our revenue increases."
One early idea is for the Treasure Chest to move its gaming operations to the other side of the levee on to the casino's existing parking lot.
That would free up the boat's current location for future development on Lake Pontchartrain.
"Kind of like a boardwalk-style restaurants, upscale condos, different things that you haven't seen before in the city of Kenner," Zahn said. "Things that you see when you go to other cities."
Zahn also predicts if the casino expands, so will businesses up and down Williams Boulevard.