The owners of The Bell of Orleans riverboat casino, Columbia Sussex Corporation, may be in a tight squeeze after a federal judge signed an order granting the casino to be seized from a shipyard in Alabama, where it was receiving repairs caused by Hurricane Katrina.  According to a seizure order signed by Magistrate William Cassidy, the owners of the riverboat casino have outstanding leasing fees in excess of $1 million. 

The money, which is owed to the Orleans Levee Board, has been growing since the casino has been out of operation.  However, the Orleans Levee Board showed to Judge Cassidy that the lease agreement explicitly states all leasing fees will be paid whether the casino is in operation or not.  And it looks as if the Board does not make exceptions to hurricanes or other natural disasters.  On the surface, the actions of the Orleans Levee Board seem to be greedy and inconsiderate.  However, the details of the relationship between The Belle of Orleans and the Board may have run deeper than the public majority knows about.

Just whether the casino will be seized remains to be seen.  Some are speculating that the move to obtain a seizure order was a scare tactic to get Columbia Sussex to pay up.  It does not look like the company is broke or going out of business, which the Levee Board has surely taken note of.

Although Hurricane Katrina was a huge disaster that nobody was predicting would happen, The Bell of Orleans has been enormously successful in the past, and so should have a backup plan at the very least.  Casinos are essentially required to have alternative solutions to bail them out of trouble when unforeseen circumstances like Katrina arise.  The question now is if Columbia Sussex can bail their riverboat casino out of being seized and potentially never operating again.