Pinnacle Entertainment informed that voters in East Baton Rouge Parish approved the development and construction of Riviere, the company’s USD 250 million gaming entertainment complex that will be built on more than 222 hectares in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The gaming resort project will offer sweeping views of the Mississippi River similar to Pinnacle’s USD 507 million Lumiere Place casino and entertainment complex located by the river in downtown St. Louis.

Pinnacle Entertainment announced that the Louisiana Gaming Control Board has approved its plans for a hotel and gaming entertainment project on more than 222.5 hectares of land that the company owns or has under contract in Baton Rouge. The master-planned development requires various other approvals, including a local-option referendum in East Baton Rouge Parish, which the company will seek to put on the ballot in February 2008, and adherence to certain conditions imposed by the Louisiana Gaming Control Board.

By a vote of 7-0, the Metro Council voted Wednesday to file a lawsuit and use any legal means necessary to get information about the economic impact of Pinnacle Entertainment’s proposed riverboat casino project in south Baton Rouge. Pinnacle had released an economic impact study in May, but declined through its lawyers to release a revised study that it recently submitted to the Louisiana Gaming Control Board.