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2020 First Extraordinary Session
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 10
BY SENATORS JOHNS AND PEACOCK
COMMENDATIONS. Commends Ronnie Jones for his dedication, knowledge, experience,
and leadership as chairman of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board.
1 A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
2 To commend Ronnie Jones for his dedication, knowledge, experience, and leadership as
3 chairman of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board.
4 WHEREAS, Ronnie Jones is a native of Tangipahoa Parish and currently resides in
5 New Orleans; and
6 WHEREAS, he earned a Bachelor of Arts from Louisiana State University in 1974
7 and a Master of Science from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1983, while also
8 attending Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, in 1978-1979; and
9 WHEREAS, Ronnie Jones was appointed Chairman of the Louisiana Gaming
10 Control Board by Governor Bobby Jindal in August 2013; and
11 WHEREAS, a veteran Louisiana State Police administrator with thirty-three years
12 of experience in the agency prior to his appointment to the chairman's position; he served
13 the last five years as the Confidential Assistant to the Superintendent of the Louisiana State
14 Police; and
15 WHEREAS, Ronnie Jones brought a unique and varied background to the position
16 of chairman; he had previously retired from a commissioned position at the Louisiana State
17 Police in October 2000 after twenty-seven years of service, having been Deputy
18 Superintendent for Operations, Planning and Training where he oversaw a variety of critical
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1 programs and activities including training, research, planning, budgeting, grants
2 administration, and public affairs, Deputy Superintendent for Support, Safety, Security and
3 Communications, a State Police Troop Commander, and Commander of State Police Crisis
4 Response; he was the primary legislative liaison and coordinator for public safety and state
5 police legislative initiatives for nearly a decade, including when riverboat and video poker
6 gaming were first approved in 1991 and participated in the debate and discussions which
7 eventually resulted in the legalization of gaming; he also served as a senior operational and
8 policy advisor and the department spokesperson when State Police established the regulatory
9 structure and began issuing licenses; and
10 WHEREAS, he has also been a college instructor and a consultant; through Public
11 Safety Consulting Services, Ronnie Jones provided public safety agencies with advice and
12 counsel on policy, management, training, and communications issues; he was a full-time and
13 adjunct instructor in Criminal Justice at Southeastern Louisiana University for twenty-one
14 years, an adjunct faculty member at Tulane University for six years, and also served at the
15 University of North Florida's Institute of Police Technology and Management since 1981,
16 where he co-founded the Institute's nationally recognized Media Management course, the
17 program was the longest continuously running program of its kind in the country at the time
18 of his departure; and
19 WHEREAS, Ronnie Jones was appointed to the Governor's DWI and Vehicular
20 Homicide Task Force by Governor Mike Foster in 1996 and served as its chairman for three
21 years; the Task Force was instrumental in reshaping Louisiana's drinking and driving laws
22 by increasing penalties for driving under the influence, raising the drinking age to
23 twenty-one, lowering the presumptive blood alcohol level, and prohibiting open alcohol
24 containers in motor vehicles; and
25 WHEREAS, the Louisiana Gaming Control Board was created in 1996 as an
26 independent body comprised of nine appointees from a variety of disciplines and serving
27 staggered six-year terms, which oversees an industry which annually generates more than
28 three billion dollars in total net revenue and more than six hundred million dollars in state
29 fees; the board is primarily responsible for maintaining public confidence and operational
30 integrity of fifteen riverboat properties, the land-based casino in the city of New Orleans,
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1 more than two thousand licensed video poker establishments, and four racetrack slot gaming
2 facilities; and
3 WHEREAS, in 2017, he was recognized by the International Masters of Gaming Law
4 as the North American Regulator of the Year; and
5 WHEREAS, Ronnie Jones also served as co-chairman of the eleven member
6 Riverboat Gaming and Economic Development Task Force created by legislative act in 2016
7 to study the riverboat gaming industry and offer recommendations to promote future
8 economic development; the task force met over a period of seventeen months, heard from
9 forty-three witnesses including eight gaming CEOs and a variety of other stakeholders; the
10 task force eventually synthesized more than two dozen industry recommendations into two
11 primary recommendations – one permitting riverboat casinos to move gaming operations
12 onto land within one thousand two hundred feet of their designated berthing sites and the
13 other redefining gaming space as being measured by the number of gaming positions rather
14 than square footage; both recommendations being enacted into law became the most
15 substantive change in the riverboat gaming law in a quarter century; and
16 WHEREAS, during most of his career Jones served as the official agency
17 spokesperson and managed the media in a variety of mundane, technical, and crisis
18 situations, he is widely recognized as an expert in the field of crisis communications
19 management and has provided media-related consultant and instructional services to public
20 and private sector entities throughout the country; and
21 WHEREAS, because of his diligence, dedication, and commitment to serving and
22 protecting the people of Louisiana, it is appropriate that a sincere and heartfelt measure of
23 appreciation be expressed to Ronnie Jones for his remarkable term of professional service,
24 particularly his guidance and leadership of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board; and
25 WHEREAS, the success of the state of Louisiana, the strength of our communities,
26 and the overall vitality of American society depend in great measure upon law enforcement
27 public servants like Ronnie Jones who use their talents and resources to lead by example,
28 with ethics and integrity.
29 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
30 commend and express appreciation to Ronnie Jones for his dedication, knowledge,
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1 experience, and leadership as chairman of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board, and does
2 hereby extend to him and his family full measures of continued success and happiness in
3 their future endeavors.
4 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to
5 Ronnie Jones.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Jerry J. Guillot.
DIGEST
SCR 10 Original 2020 First Extraordinary Session Johns
Commends Ronnie Jones for his dedication, knowledge, experience, and leadership as
chairman of the La. Gaming Control Board.
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