[6] Inside the atrium is a performance venue that has been used for concerts, mixed martial arts events, and nationally televised boxing matches.

[3] The Belle atrium is located at Catfish Town, a historic warehouse district that was redeveloped and opened as a festival marketplace in July 1984.

[13] The Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) was brought in as a tenant in December 1989, and would come to occupy more than half of the complex's leasable space.

[14][15] Catfish Town was put up for sale in April 1992 by NAB Asset Corp., which had come to own the property through a series of bank reorganizations.

[14] Louisiana had legalized riverboat casinos in July 1991, and multiple gaming operators had expressed interest in Catfish Town.

[21] Their proposal won the endorsement of Mayor Tom Ed McHugh and the city council, beating out three other casino applicants in the parish.

[25] The project's prospects were cast into doubt when the Louisiana State Police decided to disregard the Riverboat Gaming Commission's preliminary decisions and evaluate the applicants on their economic potential, including a third proposal by developer Charles Lambert and Lady Luck Gaming to dock a casino boat at the Capitol House Hotel.

[28] During the licensing and construction process, several riverboat applicants, including Jazz Enterprises, were targeted by extortion schemes involving Governor Edwin Edwards.

[41] The three-story Argosy Landing building, the project's first permanent land-based facility, opened in February 1995, featuring a bar, gift shop, and restaurant.

[51] In order to expedite approval for the merger from federal and state regulators, Penn National put the Argosy Baton Rouge up for sale.

[54] Weeks later, Penn National closed on the sale of the casino to a Columbia Sussex affiliate[55] (which would later become an independent company, Tropicana Entertainment).

[60][61] In 2020, Caesars agreed to sell the Belle's operating business to CQ Holding, the parent company of the Casino Queen in Illinois.