Casino regulators OK Silver Slipper; Palace reopens Dec. 30
JACKSON, Miss. - Gaming regulators have approved plans for work to begin on the Silver Slipper Casino in Hancock County and for the Palace Casino to reopen in Biloxi on Dec. 30.
Construction on the $43 million Silver Slipper should begin “almost immediately” and be finished by the last quarter of next year, Scott Andress, the casino company’s lawyer, told members of the Mississippi Gaming Commission on Thursday.
The Silver Slipper will have 1,000 slot machines, 26 table games and 10 poker tables. It will employ between 400 and 500 people, he said.
Originally, Silver Slipper received permission to dock a riverboat near Bayou Caddy. Later, the company changed those plans and decided to put a gambling barge on pilings to take advantage of a change in state law. Hurricane Katrina caused the Legislature to change the law a second time and approve onshore casinos.
Although the Silver Slipper will be in Hancock County, it has some hurricane cleanup to do in Harrison County. Silver Slipper Casino Venture LLC had bought the old President Casino barge in Biloxi, which it had intended to tow to Hancock County and put on pilings. The hurricane hurled the barge onto the Biloxi Beachfront Hotel on U.S. 90.
Andress told commissioners that demolition and salvage operations on the barge should begin soon.
The Palace Casino will reopen on Point Cadet in Biloxi with about 450 employees. In recent weeks, many employees have seen one another for the first time since casinos closed in advance of the Aug. 29 hurricane, said general manager Keith Crosby.
“It’s been heartwarming to see the folks, their hugs and how they’re greeted,” Crosby said. “They are anxious to get back to work. I think there’s a level of intimacy that wasn’t there before or, if it was, it has just been magnified now.”
The Palace has bought property from neighbors for future expansion and is planning to acquire more, Crosby said.
It also has demolition work to do. Cleaning up its smaller Sports Zone gambling barge, which was washed ashore, is an easier task than removing its main barge, which sank into the Biloxi Bay. The underwater operation could take as long as five to six months, Crosby said.
The other two Biloxi casinos reopening by the end of the year - the Imperial Palace and the Isle of Capri - received their approvals from the commission in November. The Imperial Palace has set its reopening for Dec. 22, while the Isle of Capri will reopen Dec. 26.
Information from: The Sun Herald, http://www.sunherald.com