The Louisiana Gaming Control Board adopted a resolution on July 17, 2025, granting Catfish Queen LLC (doing business as Belle of Baton Rouge) an extension to complete its landside gaming project and accept related plan changes and construction change orders.

Why it matters: the extension preserves the licensee’s right to finish an expanded project that the licensee says will include additional amenities, hotel rooms and other investments while the board accepted modified plans and multiple change orders that alter the previously approved project scope.

Jeff Barban, counsel for Catfish Queen LLC, and Stacy Stagg, senior vice president and regional general manager for Bally’s (the operator group identified in the presentation), told the board the project has encountered seven categories of delay, including mechanical equipment release timing, structural repairs discovered after opening up previously un-surveyed sections of the buildings (including a service tunnel under the atrium), interior grade changes inside the casino floor, leak and atrium repairs, foundation and porta-casceres work that has required France Street closures, and deteriorated mechanical-yard cooling units. Stagg said the licensee has spent $164 million to date and opened 242 hotel rooms on March 31; she asked the board to extend the construction deadline to Dec. 31, 2025.

Board staff read a resolution describing the licensing history and prior extensions; the board’s previous resolution had set an original completion date of Sept. 15, 2024, later extended to July 31, 2025. The board’s July 17 resolution amends provision 2(c) of the September 15, 2022 resolution (as amended) to extend the deadline to Dec. 31, 2025; it also accepted the licensee’s amended plans and specifications and construction change orders numbered 1 through 21. The resolution requires the licensee to continue regularly scheduled meetings with the Louisiana State Police Gaming Enforcement Division at the division’s discretion until project completion.

Board members voted; the roll call recorded affirmative votes and the resolution carried. Chairman Abad and staff said they had toured the property with representatives from the attorney general’s office and state police and observed progress. The board did not record additional conditions beyond acceptance of the plans, change orders and the requirement for continued meetings with the State Police Gaming Enforcement Division.