The riverboat casino that has anchored the Harvey Canal since 1994 is about to come ashore for good. PENN Entertainment plans to spend $195 million converting Boomtown New Orleans into a land-based facility called Hollywood Casino New Orleans, ditching the vessel format entirely and building a 140,000-square-foot casino near the current riverboat at 4132 Peters Road in Harvey, Louisiana.
The new facility, expected to open in 2029 next to the property's existing hotel, will include 875 slot machines, 45 table games, a retail sportsbook, a VIP lounge, and several restaurants and bars, including a steakhouse, according to NOLA.com. It will employ 475 workers once operational, and the current riverboat will be vacated once the new casino opens, per the same report. The project still requires regulatory approval before construction can move forward.
PENN Entertainment Chief Executive Officer Jay Snowden framed the Harvey conversion as the company's fourth landside relocation project nationally, following similar moves in Aurora and Joliet, Illinois, and a planned conversion in Council Bluffs, Iowa, set for 2028, according to Stock Titan. Kathryn Jenkins said, per the NOLA.com report, that PENN is proud to make a significant investment in Jefferson Parish and create a destination serving guests and the community for years.
A Statewide Shift Off the Water
Boomtown's transition follows a wave of similar projects across Louisiana made possible by a 2018 change in state law allowing floating casinos to relocate within a quarter mile of their riverboat berth, per NOLA.com's reporting. Under the version of that law detailed by Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann L.L.C., riverboats gained the ability to move up to 1,200 feet onshore from their berthing facilities, trading the old 30,000-square-foot gaming space cap for a new limit of 2,365 gaming positions.
The Queen Baton Rouge became the state's pioneer in August 2023, moving off the Mississippi River into a 100,000-square-foot facility through an $85 million redevelopment, as reported by SBC Americas. Bally's Corporation followed with a $141 million overhaul of the former Belle of Baton Rouge, rebranding it Bally's Baton Rouge with more than 750 slot machines and 24 table games, according to Casino.org.
Kenner's Treasure Chest Offers a Local Preview
The closest precedent for Harvey sits just across the parish line in Kenner, where Treasure Chest Casino opened a new $100 million on-land facility in 2024. Gross gaming revenue there hit $12.5 million in February 2025, an 81.6% jump compared to February 2024, according to CDC Gaming. NOLA.com reports Treasure Chest's revenue grew a further 8% in the most recent fiscal year, after posting 70% higher gross revenue in fiscal year 2025 than the prior year.
Boyd Gaming's Keith Smith said during an earnings call that the company would start construction to move its Amelia Belle Casino near Morgan City onto land by the end of the following year, NOLA.com reports, suggesting the statewide migration off the water is far from finished. Louisiana currently has 15 riverboat casino license holders, and the state's riverboat casinos earned $1.9 billion in gross revenue for fiscal year 2026, according to state revenue reports cited by NOLA.com.
What Boomtown Brings to Jefferson Parish
Boomtown New Orleans currently houses over 700 slot machines and 20 table games within 30,000 square feet of gaming space, drawing roughly 60,000 to 70,000 visits per month according to Louisiana State Police figures cited by NOLA.com. The casino generated about $104.6 million in gross revenue between July 2025 and June 2026, and $22.5 million in local taxes for the fiscal year ending in June — money split between Jefferson Parish government and four West Jefferson municipalities.
That local funding stream reaches beyond Harvey itself. The Town of Jean Lafitte's annual financial audit for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025, shows the municipality receiving gaming commission funds tied to a 5% local allocation from Boomtown, according to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor. Boomtown remains the only casino operating on the West Bank of Jefferson Parish, a status it has held since first opening on the Harvey Canal in 1994 and later joining PENN's portfolio through the company's $2.8 billion acquisition of Pinnacle Entertainment in October 2018, per Wikipedia.
The property already took an incremental step toward modernizing in 2015, adding a five-story, 150-room hotel on land for $20 million — the same hotel the new Hollywood Casino New Orleans is slated to open beside in 2029. PENN Entertainment operates several other Louisiana properties beyond Harvey, including L'Auberge Casino Resort Lake Charles, L'Auberge Casino Hotel Baton Rouge, Margaritaville Resort Casino and Boomtown Casino Hotel in Bossier City, and Boomtown Casino Biloxi across the state line in Mississippi.
Who Owns the Land Underneath
The real estate beneath Boomtown belongs to a separate company, Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc. (GLPI), which was spun off from Penn National Gaming in 2013 to hold property assets while PENN manages day-to-day casino operations. GLPI projected between $750 million and $800 million in total development funding commitments for casino operator tenants during 2026, according to a GlobeNewswire release — a funding structure that helps explain how PENN can finance a $195 million rebuild while continuing to operate its existing riverboat casino through the transition.
