Moving Biloxi casinos ashore paying off

With gross revenues from Coast casinos topping pre-Katrina levels, it looks like Mississippi gambled and won on its industry reinvestment strategy of allowing gaming to come onshore.

In the days after the hurricane struck the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the casino industry saw firsthand that floating barges were not the way to go - billions in investments in pieces along miles of shore, tossed up by the massive wind-blown tidal surge like toy boats.

The question was if Mississippi lawmakers would have the political courage to face anti-gaming interests and allow the onshore change.

Interests that opposed gaming on religious grounds saw an opportunity to reverse the 1990 law legalizing it, but despite a concerted effort, in a special session, lawmakers voted Oct. 3, 2005, to let casinos move 800 feet on shore.

Now, it appears, that decision is paying off. According to the State Tax Commission, Mississippi’s gross gaming revenue was $247.9 million in February, topping the pre-Katrina February 2005 level of $244.9 million.

And, with two additional casinos set to open this year, Mississippi is poised to break the $3 billion mark in gaming.

It’s also a good bet that in some races this year, candidates will attack those who voted to allow casinos onshore.

However one feels about gaming, it became a legal business in 1990 and without the onshore vote, it’s a stone cold reality that employment would not have returned to the 14,000 Coast pre-Hurricane Katrina levels, or that the Coast’s recovery would be as far as it is without the construction jobs that came from building them on shore since the hurricane hit.

The Coast still has a long way to go toward recovery, with thousands still living in temporary housing. But, if it’s imaginable, yes, it would be far worse, if Mississippi lawmakers had not gambled, and won, on allowing casinos to come ashore.

Source: Clarion Ledger 

It seems that moving the Biloxi Casinos ashore will pay off big time in the long run.

For a current Biloxi Casino Map, visist: Biloxi Map

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 22nd, 2007 at 9:34 am and is filed under Biloxi Casinos, Biloxi Hotels, Biloxi Mississippi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.