September 19

Gulfport back in the casino business

GULFPORT, Miss. Gambling returned to Gulfport, Mississippi, last night (Monday) with the opening of the Island View Casino.

Gulfport Mayor Brent Warr thanked owners Rick Carter and Terry Green for putting their money and heart back into Gulfport to create a premium resort.

Leland Speed, executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority, says the two men could have taken their insurance money and spent their time golfing in Palm Beach instead of reinvesting.

The men, who have been business partners since 1988, took a different route than other casino developers after Hurricane Katrina.

Carter and Green, who owned the Copa Casino, stayed focused on building back in Gulfport even though the mayor initially opposed allowing casinos to go north of U-S Highway 90.

When Harrah’s Entertainment opted to leave the city and put its resources in Biloxi, Carter and Green bought two hotels and a 40-acre site from Harrah’s.

Now, they have the only casino in the coast’s largest city.

The casino has over one-thousand slot machines and 14 table games. It will double in size by next spring.

Carter says 90 percent of the 12-hundred employees either worked for the Grand Gulfport or Copa before the storm.