By SEAN MUSSENDEN
Media General News Service
BILOXI, Miss.—The slot machines no longer pay off in the Las Vegas of the South.
The nine massive casino barges that line the water here sit silent and vacant, some tossed by a two-story storm surge onto a patch of sandy soil across a coastal highway.
Their new, dry resting spot foreshadows the future of gambling in this poor, intensely religious state with an uneasy dependence on casinos.
Owners of the coastal gambling palaces will rebuild over the next two years — and most will likely do so on land.
When casinos were first legalized here in 1990, state law restricted them to the waters off the coast or on the banks of the Mississippi River. No longer.
State lawmakers quickly scrapped the restrictions after Hurricane Katrina to appease casino executives fretting about rebuilding one of Mississippi’s most important industries.
“The state is taking the necessary precautions to provide safety for the casinos and, in turn, is providing jobs for thousands of displaced Mississippi workers,” Gov. Haley Barbour said after signing the new law that allows casinos 800 feet inland from the coast.
The move has angered many conservative Christians in the heart of the Bible Belt. They accuse casino companies of using the catastrophe to spread gambling further across the state.
In the late 1980s, off-shore gambling cruises picked up passangers at ports along the Mississippi coast. Then, in the early 1990s, the legislature allowed floating casino barges to operate without leaving port. Now, land-based casinos are just around the corner. Read the rest of this entry »
From a few reliable sources, and some recent published news articles, it looks like the Biloxi Gulfport area might have temporary casinos up an running shortly after the New Years. I am not sure which casinos will be opened for business. But I am sure most of them will try to construct some type of temporary structure to compete with the casinos that are open.
To me it seems that the Imperial Palace, Beau Rivage, Casino Magic, Isle of Capri, possibly Treasure Bay (from recent posted article), and maybe one or two others will be the first to open.
When I receive any information, I will be posting. I will also be making a trip to cover the temporary casinos, etc.. Stay tuned.
Now would be a good time to Bookmark Biloxi Blog!
By PATRICK JOY
ST. CROIX – In a last-minute decision hours before Hurricane Katrina roared into Biloxi, Miss., Regina Harvey and her family piled into a car and began an agonizingly slow evacuation to Alabama. Across town, Kim Walston already had left but ended up in the same town as Harvey.
When they returned to Biloxi, along with thousands of other residents, Harvey and Walston found a devastated city. Walston’s house was gone, along with everything she owned. Harvey’s second-floor apartment survived – although every apartment on the third floor was gone.
Neither had jobs. The casino where the two worked was leveled by the Category 4 storm.
But now, nearly two months after Katrina ravaged the Gulf coast, both are pulling their lives back together, and along with 13 other Biloxi residents, their journey has led them to St. Croix.
“I went to pick up my paycheck – my last paycheck – and they told me about this opportunity to come down here on a temporary basis,” Harvey said. “I decided to take it.”
Treasure Bay Casino, Harvey and Walston’s employer, also owns the Divi Carina Bay Casino on St. Croix’s East End. In a bid to help out in the relief and hold on to its employers, the company worked out temporary transfers for 15 of its staff. The employees are staying free in the resort’s rooms and are working at the casino while a temporary casino is being rebuilt in Mississippi. There is no time limit on their stay, but most will leave when a temporary casino is constructed in Biloxi sometime after the New Year. Read the rest of this entry »
