L’Auberge General Manager Mickey Parenton, who has led the Baton Rouge casino and hotel since it opened in September 2012, will leave his position in October, when Penn National Gaming acquires L’Auberge parent company, Pinnacle Entertainment.
Penn National offered Parenton a position with the company at its headquarters in Pennsylvania, but the New Orleans native says he declined because he didn’t want to relocate his family.
“I decided for the best interest of my family that after 24 years it’s a good time to reevaluate what I want to do,” Parenton says. “But it’s been a great ride, particularly in Baton Rouge and at L’Auberge. Baton Rouge has opened its arms to us and accepted us.”
Parenton actually came to Baton Rouge in 2009, when planning and construction for the new casino and hotel began, and he helped lay the groundwork for the facility’s entry into the market. In the years since, he has kept an unusually high profile for a casino GM and has helped strategically position L’Auberge as a community partner that sponsors events and donates to local charities.
Parenton brought longstanding ties to L’Auberge when he came to the market. He’s been a part of Louisiana’s casino industry since it was born in the early 1990s. He served as GM of the now-defunct Flamingo Casino, which was docked at the Hilton Hotel on New Orleans’ downtown riverfront, and at Beau Rivage on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. He also reopened Harrah’s Casino in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina before joining Pinnacle.
Parenton says he has no future career plans at this point, but he’s fairly certain whatever he does will not involve gaming.
“Potentially hospitality or entertainment, but I don’t think I’ll be back in gaming,” says Parenton, whose children are ages 4 and 11. “This business takes a lot of time and effort. I plan to be spending more time with family.”
