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