BusinessReport.com

Pinnacle has spent $5 million over the past year to convince East Baton Rouge Parish votes to let them bring a new casino to town, while Penn National Gaming, doing business as Louisiana Casino Cruises, and Columbia Sussex/Tropicana Entertainment, sometimes operating under the name Catfish Queen Partnership, have spent a combined total of at least $833,797 since October, according to The Advocate.

Here’s a few of the arguments you’ve come across if you’ve been watching TV or checking your mail:

FOR:

They say: The existing casinos are closer to residential areas than Pinnacle’s would be.

We say: The Belle of Baton Rouge and Hollywood Casino are close to downtown neighborhoods. But people who live in Spanish Town or Beauregard Town choose to be downtown near bars, restaurants and, since the 1990s, casinos. The south Baton Rouge families who oppose Pinnacle’s plans are more conservative, and they would be getting something they definitely didn’t sign up for.

They say: Pinnacle will spend its own money to improve infrastructure, while the two boats have never spent a dime.

We say: The existing casinos argue they’ve spent millions since they’ve been paying taxes here for more than a decade. More to the point, downtown already had the infrastructure; Pinnacle wants to build in a semi-rural area that’s not even in the city limits. In Lake Charles, where Pinnacle has built the $370 million L’Auberge du Lac Hotel & Casino resort and is in the process of building Sugarcane Bay next door, the company spent $6.5 million on a “Texas turnaround” to manage the traffic flow.

AGAINST:

They say: Pinnacle admits their casino will increase traffic.

We say: Of course it will. Any time you replace nothing with something, there’s going to be more traffic. If you build a McDonald’s in that spot, it will increase traffic. But Pinnacle says the heaviest traffic will not occur during rush hour. And that anti-Pinnacle mailer, showing a 10-lane highway jammed with cars, all thanks to Pinnacle? Pure hyperbole.

They say: Pinnacle has no agreement with city-parish government to improve roads or provide for extra police or fire protection.

We say: True, as far as we know. But this is presented as somehow sinister in the anti-Pinnacle ads, when it’s actually beside the point. Yes, we don’t know how much of Pinnacle’s own money they’d be willing to spend, but expecting them to have a contract with city government when they don’t even have project approval from voters is just silly.