Live! Casino Hotel promises a unique experience and world-class gaming and entertainment

Is there room for a sixth casino hotel in Shreveport-Bossier?

Maybe, if the new property isn’t like the others.

Executives with Live! Casino Hotel Louisiana, where DiamondJacks Casino Resort in Bossier used to be, want you to know their property is unlike anything else in our gaming market.

“You can play a slot machine or table game at any casino for the most part,” said Josh Robinson, vice president of marketing. “But what you’re going to experience when you walk in these doors is going to be totally different, totally new to the market. I think that’s what’s going to set us apart.”

Live! opened Feb. 13. Northwest Louisiana’s first land-based casino features a 47,000-plus-square-foot gaming floor, more than 500 remodeled hotel rooms, and eight restaurants and bars. There’s also an Events Center, which can seat approximately 1,000 people. All those venues are equipped to have live entertainment. In fact, Live! promises entertainment in at least one of those places seven days a week.

“Every day, I feel the excitement of what this place is going to bring to Bossier City and to this whole region,” said Executive Vice President and General Manager John J. Chaszar. “It’s spectacular. You walk around and are in awe. I pinch myself every day that I have the humble duty of overseeing this place.”

Bossier City Mayor Tommy Chandler and officials on a roll for success.

Prior to coming to our area, Chaszar was senior vice president and general manager of Tropicana Casino in Evansville, Indiana.

Live! is the newest of three casino hotels owned by the Cordish Companies (based in Baltimore, Maryland). The Cordish portfolio includes three standalone hotels and seven Live! entertainment districts, including Texas Live!, located in Arlington between the Texas Rangers’ Globe Live Park and the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium.

“This is an entirely new concept of just pure entertainment,” Chaszar said. “Gaming is just part of the entertainment experience here at Live! Obviously, it’s one of the things that primarily financially supports this project, but this company is also about entertainment. Not just concerts, but also the food and beverage venues. (The) food and beverage venues of our competitors (are) a place for people to eat while they’re not gambling. This is going to be a place where people come to actually enjoy the food and beverage experience. Every one of our venues is an experience in itself.”

The $270 million property boasts several unique features, including a 5,472-piece crystal dragon which hangs above the casino’s Asian Pit. Each of the dragon’s scales had to be individually placed.

“If you step into any Live! casino property, you will immediately be energized upon entry,” said Bryan Prettyman, senior vice president of property operations. “Bright colors. Décor. Illumination. All your senses are pretty much turned on the minute you walk onto the property. Our finishes are top of the line. Ceramic tile on the floors, velvet wallpaper. The ceiling treatments. The lighting elements.”

You won’t find any loud, look-at-me colors at Live! The hotel is a soft blend of whites and greys. The rest of the property has rich, vibrant, warm colors.

Here’s a look at each aspect of Live!:

CASINO

More than 1,000 slot machines and electronic table games and 40-plus live-action table games fill the gaming floor.

“Every casino has pretty much the same slot product,” Prettyman said. “It’s the comfortable mix of denominations, newer titles, plus the old favorites. Too many times, you will find that casinos want to get rid of the old to bring in the new in the market. But you tend to want to have a good inventory of old-time favorites, and we do have that. Ranging from what’s now the most popular penny game all the way up to $100 machines. You will find pretty much every title, every manufacture, new and old, on the floor.

“Table games are table games. Blackjack, craps, roulette, the carnival games.

Our High Limit experience is going to be second to none in this market. If you are a high-level player, you will definitely feel most comfortable here.”

But Prettyman insists the penny slot puller is just as important as the person laying down $100 a poker hand.

“We treat all our players, big and small, pretty much the same. That’s a Live! philosophy.”

HOTEL

After a long day of travel, guests will be soothed at check-in by the backdrop of a mesh copper wire sculpture that’s heated, which gives it its color. The sculpture was inspired by the ebbs and flows of the Red River.

When Cordish bought DiamondJacks in 2023, the company got a hotel that had long since seen its last guest.

“All 549 rooms (which include penthouse suites) have been broken down to the studs,” said Prettyman. “Plumbing, HVAC, electrical — everything has been replaced.

The rooms were basically rebuilt. Every piece of furnishing in that room is top of the line and part of the Cordish brand.”

But furnishings aren’t the only things that are highend.

“You will see top-of-the-line mattresses and box springs, linens, feather pillows and down pillows available. The showers, the fixtures, the toiletries are all top of the line.”

If this was a stand-alone hotel, Prettyman said he would rate it as a four-star property.

A 5,472-piece dragon above the Asian Pit.

Joe Billhimer, executive vice president, Cordish Gaming Group; Rob Norton, president, Cordish Gaming Group; Jon Cordish, principal, The Cordish Companies; and John Chaszar, executive vice president and general manager, Live! Casino & Hotel Louisiana.

The sophisticated bar area for the Prime Rib Steakhouse.

Alexis Torres, Jasmine Waton, Kyley Phillips and Ariyon Archey keep it cool in the PBR Cowboy Bar.

FOOD AND BEVERAGE

First things first. Live! does not offer a buffet. However, you have a choice of eight places to eat and drink. Live!’s upscale restaurant is the Prime Rib, open Wednesday through Sunday evenings. It features entrees from the land (prime rib, steaks, chicken, burgers) and the sea (sea bass, salmon, red snapper). If your group wants privacy, you can reserve the Bourbon Room, where each shelf is lined with signature bourbon.

Just off the gaming floor is Luk Fu, an Asian-themed restaurant which Prettyman said is “a very, very elevated dining experience.” The menu includes cuisine from across Asia, with what Perryman described as a heavier-than-usual Vietnamese influence. On one of Luk Fu’s walls is a mural painted by a street artist from the United Kingdom, who spent a week on the Live! property. Another artist used 100,000 chopsticks — that’s right, 100,000 — to make a partition between two booths.

Prettyman prefers not to describe the casual Ridotto Grand Café (named after the first legal casino in Italy) as an Italian restaurant. There are other items on the menu, though most have an Italian flair. Live! Louisiana is the first Cordish property to have Ridotto, which will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Sports and Social is “your casual, ‘let’s go watch the game, have a burger, eat some wings, drink some beer, sit back, kick back, relax, have fun’ place,” Prettyman said. While there is a sports bar, the stars of the show are a giant video wall and a plethora of big-screen televisions.

PBR Cowboy Bar is, as Shelli Briery Murphy, Live!’s advertising and public relations manager, described, “a full-blown nightclub. It’s an experience, not just a drink.” The sound of country music accompanies a mechanical bull. There are also line dancing and a (Thursday) Ladies Night, with Natchitoches-born singer/entertainer Trini Triggs often hosting the festivities.

There are two other bars in Live! The Center Bar is in the casino, open 24/7, and offers 360-degree views of gaming activity. Center Bar isn’t hard to find. It’s the one with the 40,000-pound LED chandelier that changes colors.

The intimate R Bar, just off the hotel lobby, seats approximately 40 people, not including side tables. There is a fire feature and, in addition to drinks, you can enjoy sharable plates and tapas. The R Bar’s colorful artwork pays homage to music in the South, especially jazz.

Dining choices include (from left) Ridotto Grand Cafè, the Prime Rib steakhouse and the Asian-inspired Luk Fu.

ENTERTAINMENT

From nationally known headliners to local musicians, Live! wants to be known as the place for entertainment in Shreveport-Bossier.

“Entertainment is in our DNA,” Prettyman said. “It’s part of our culture. Not just the entertainment that’s going to be in our Events Center, but it’s live entertainment in each of our venues. There will always be live entertainment at Live! ...

We will always have an entertainment experience going on.”

Four “big-name” acts have already been announced: Walker Hayes (think the Applebee’s song), the Commodores, comedian Matt Matthews and Clint Black.

Smaller acts will feature locals from Shreveport-Bossier, as well as bands from East Texas and Dallas.

“We want to make sure we provide entertainment for everyone,” Robinson said. “You will see a very diverse lineup of genres. Not just our national acts, but we will have live entertainment in the building every day, somewhere.”

Within its first five years, Live! estimates it will bring $35 million in gaming tax revenue to Bossier and $168 million to the state of Louisiana. Live! expects to add to the local economy $34 million in annual salaries and wages, plus tips, as a result of 750 full-time jobs.

“Coming into a market like this is exciting,” said Prettyman, who moved to Shreveport-Bossier from Cordish’s property in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The people in this market are looking forward to energy. They’re looking forward to entertainment. They’re not necessarily looking forward to another casino. They can get that next door, down the street and across the river. What they’re needing here is an experience. That was part of our learning coming into this market, and that’s how we built our brand.”

To learn more about Live! Casino Hotel Louisiana, you may visit louisiana.livecasinohotel.com.