There are seven Landry’s restaurants, including the high-end Vic & Anthony’s, plus a buffet. When you walk into the Nugget, the casino - open, not tucked behind a wall - lies in front of you, its jingles mingling with rock music beneath a huge red, white and amber chandelier. “There’s nothing like this outside of Vegas and Atlantic City,” says general manager Mike Kelly. The staff constantly asks if you need anything. This $700 million resort is a slice of Vegas, offering luxurious rooms, a spa, a fitness center, a golf course, tennis courts, shopping, ballrooms, a Vegas-style dance club, a marina, a beach and pools with a lazy river and slides. The resort’s just three hours east of Houston, but it’s five hours from Dallas, so why should North Texans go there when they can reach Oklahoma’s tribal casinos in less than two hours and Shreveport-Bossier’s gambling spots in about three?īecause the Nugget is, in a word, fancier. And they’re coming - locals, for sure, but also throngs from Texas. Tilman Fertitta, owner of the Landry’s restaurant empire, built it. Blackjack and baccarat tables were busy, too, and table waits at the resort’s seven restaurants were more than two hours at one point as cars snaked in from Loop 210 in a long line reminiscent of the movie Field of Dreams. There wasn’t a vacant seat in the six-table poker room and only a smattering of vacancies at the 1,600 slots. On both nights of opening weekend earlier this month, it was packed. LAKE CHARLES, La. - The new Lake Charles Golden Nugget casino resort has the biggest porte-cochère in Louisiana, capable of corralling 100 cars.

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