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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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