In August 1993, however, the State Casino Board awarded the state's sole casino license to Harrah's and not the Hemmeter-Caesar's partnership. In 1993 a partnership of Hemmeter and Caesars World obtained the lease on the Rivergate property, which by law was the only place the land-based casino could be built in Louisiana, beating out a rival bid by Harrah's Entertainment.

The developers estimated the casino would attract one million additional visitors to the city and would generate annual revenues of as much as $780 million, estimates that were based in part on the proven success of dockside gaming in the Mississippi Gulf Coast area. The original design resembled Monte Carlo's 1861 casino, intending to evoke the New Orleans 1885 Cotton Exposition and Chicago's 1893 World Columbia Exposition. Billed at the time as 'the world's largest casino'. His biggest project was a proposed $1 billion casino in New Orleans. The casino is the brainchild of Christopher Hemmeter, a hotel developer in the Hawaiian Islands who returned to the mainland in 1991 when he began to develop casino gaming projects including the nearby River City Casino. A short tunnel built as part of the canceled Vieux Carré Riverfront Expressway is used for valet parking and for an entrance passing underneath Poydras Street.

The location of the casino was most recently previously the site of the Rivergate Convention Center, demolished in 1995. The casino shut down in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 but reopened in the midst of Mardi Gras on February 17, 2006. It is referred to in state statute as 'the official gaming establishment'.

It is the only land-based private casino with table games in the state by Louisiana law (there are other casinos in the state with their gambling facilities on floating boats and horse racing racinos with slot machines). In order to avoid leasing rooms, the casino opened its own 27-story hotel tower with 450 rooms across the street from the casino on September 21, 2006, just days ahead of the New Orleans Saints return to the Louisiana Superdome. Since its opening in 1999 Harrah's has been renting nearby hotel rooms to accommodate its guests currently, the newly renovated 202-room Wyndham Riverfront Hotel is providing such accommodations. There are several places to eat ranging from buffet style to fine dining. The casino is owned by Vici Properties and operated by Caesars Entertainment. It is a 115,000 sq ft (10,700 m 2) casino with approximately 2,100 slot machines, over 90 table games and a poker room. Harrah's New Orleans is a casino in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, near the foot of Canal Street a block away from the Mississippi River.

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