October 10

Over this past weekend, the Las Vegas-based Pinnacle Entertainment casino gambling company reopened part of its casino located near hurricane damaged Lake Charles. In fact, the casino opened a few days earlier than was expected. The rest of the casino will be opened over the next few days or so.

3 of Pinnacle's Gulf Coast casinos were forced to close from inclement weather conditions and damages from two different hurricanes in two months.

On Friday, the gaming company reopened two restaurants at L'Auberge du Lac in Lake Charles. on Saturday, the floating casino opened.

Now that employees from the casino are becoming increasingly able to work again, the gambling company has plans to reopen the rest of the resort, including its 26-story 750-room hotel tower as soon as possible.

Being that L'Auberge is Lake Charles' top gaming revenue generator, it is a good thing for the local economy that the casino is getting back on track towards business.

Just over 14 days ago, Pinnacle became the first casino company in New Orleans to reopen, too.

Pinnacle's Casino Magic in Biloxi, Miss., was heavily damaged by Katrina and has not scheduled a reopening yet.