`I do's' launch casino chapel

As reported by the Toronto Star

 

NIAGARA FALLS, Canada - Some 300 couples rolled the dice on love, again, as they renewed wedding vows yesterday to open Canada's first casino chapel, including a woman whose biological family missed out the first time she tied the knot.

"I'm overwhelmed," said Fran Henderson, the woman's mother, before the ceremony at Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort.

"I'm just glad that we're going to have a chance to do this because we didn't know Angela when she got married, so now all four of us will be able to do this as a family."

After spending a decade searching for her biological family, casino employee Angela Rines, 31, finally married her husband five years ago.

Months after the ceremony, Rines discovered she was working alongside her birth mother and two sisters at the casino.

When the group heard about the mass wedding to open the chapel, the mother and her three daughters jumped at the opportunity to renew their vows.

Drawing on his 30 years in the casino business, including 20 in Las Vegas, casino president Larry Lewin decided to gamble on turning the honeymoon capital of Canada into the wedding capital.

However, Lewin said, Elvis impersonators need not apply - and don't look for any drive-thru weddings.

He said the ceremonies will opt for "simple elegance" similar to what dazzling Vegas hotels like the Bellagio or MGM Grand have done.

Plans are underway to build three gazebos in front of The Falls for outdoor weddings and should be ready by July. He expects as many as 1,200 ceremonies will be performed at the casino chapel in its first year.

Isle of Capri spending $16 million in Lake Charles casino upgrade

As Reported by The Associated Press

LAKE CHARLES, Louisiana - The Isle of Capri is spending $16 million to upgrade and renovate one of its two casino boats in Lake Charles.

Jeff King, Isle Lake Charles general manager, said the Crown Riverboat will get new carpet, walls, bars and slot machines. The poker room on the third deck will be upgraded, King said.
This is the same riverboat the Isle had proposed moving to suburban New Orleans in Jefferson Parish last year. It later withdrew its application to relocate the riverboat casino from the State Gaming Control Board because of opposition.

Isle President Tim Hinkley has said the company has not dropped the idea of having a casino along the Mississippi River.
King said the Crown will have a "fresh new Isle look" similar to what was done on the Grand Palais last year. The Biloxi-based company spent about $15 million last year renovating and upgrading the larger riverboat.

Construction will start after Feb. 22 on the Crown's bottom deck, which will be shut down, King said.

"We will finish it out, bring the new games on, and open it back up and then close the second deck," he said.

King said he estimates the construction project will be complete by mid-June. The first- and second-deck renovations should be completed by mid-May, with the poker room project being completed last.

The Crown Casino Riverboat moved to Lake Charles in July 1995 from St. Charles Parish.