Opelousas Board Approves Alcohol Ordinance

The current city ordinance allows liquor to be sold on a 24 hour basis, and many are not happy about that. Therefore they asked the Opelousas Board of Alderman to consider changing the ordinance to put some restrictions on the times that alcohol can be sold. The board agreed with residents, and approved a proposed amended ordinance that will change the hours that alcohol can be served and limit it to being sold between the hours of 6 am and 2 am.

Bars and other establishments will now need to close between the hours of 2 am and 6 am if the ordinance is passed. The establishments will be closed between those hours, but employees and owners would be allowed to stay until 2:30 am to take care of “legitimate business-related activities.” The ordinance could be passed at their April 23rd meeting, but a public hearing will be held first for discussion on the matter.

The ordinance will not affect the Evangeline Downs casino, as any business whose alcoholic sales are less than 15% of their total revenue is exempt from the new law. They say that they need to be able to offer free drinks to their slot machine players after 2 am in order to remain competitive with the other casinos. The bar owners say that this gives the casino an unfair advantage over them as people will go there to drink knowing that they can stay all night.

They say that there is more of a danger in someone leaving a casino drunk and mad that they lost money at a slot machine doing damage to the neighborhood than there is with someone just being drunk and leaving a bar. They say that if the city passes the ordinance giving the casino an unfair advantage over them they will sue the city for the same rights.

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