October 11

Pinnacle Entertainment, a Vegas based casino gambling company, reopened certain areas of its casino in hurricane-ravaged St. Charles, La., over the weekend and hopes to have the entire $365 million property operating by this week.

Three of Pinnacle's Gulf Coast casinos were closed over the past two months because of hurricanes. The company reopened two restaurants at L'Auberge du Lac in Lake Charles on Friday. The property's 30,000-square-foot floating casino opened Saturday.

As casino employees that were evacuated in Hurricane Rita's devastation return to the stricken area, Pinnacle plans to reopen the rest of the resort, including its 26-story 750-room hotel tower.

When it opened, L'Auberge quickly became Lake Charles' gaming revenue giant. The gambling facility earned more than $20 million in gaming revenues in its first month of business.

Two weeks ago, Pinnacle became the first casino company in New Orleans to resume operations.

In Lake Charles, recovery workers used L'Auberge as a base of operations as they worked to restore power and services to the city.

Pinnacle's Casino Magic in Biloxi, Miss., was heavily damaged by Katrina and has not reopened.