Katrina, which struck August 29, left 80 percent of New Orleans under water and the Mississippi coast in tatters, causing more than $81 billion in damage and killing more than 1,800 people. Now, Mississippi is booming as tourists flock to new casinos and golf courses, while New Orleans is struggling to revive after choosing to focus on cruise ships, sports and conferences.
"Compared to Louisiana, compared to where we thought we might be, we've done quite well," Senator Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican, said in an interview.
Mississippi officials say they hope to transform the Gulf Coast into the Atlantic City of the South. After Katrina picked up casino barges and littered the shore with their broken debris -dropping Harrah's Entertainment's four-floor Biloxi casino in the middle of Highway 90, for example – Mississippi quickly moved to allow gambling at least 800 feet inland, overturning a law that required casinos to be offshore.
"We are witnessing a rebirth on the coast due to that legislation," Mississippi Gaming Commissioner Larry Gregory said. "Once we opened up the doors there was some magic. People from Alabama, people from northwest Florida, they wanted to come back."
Since late December, three Biloxi casinos – the privately owned IP and Palace, and a complex owned by Creve Coeur, Missouri-based Isle of Capri Casinos – had revenue of $780 million, more than 60 percent of the $1.3 billion yearly revenue brought in by the coast's 12 pre-Katrina casinos.
Three other projects will bring almost $3 billion in investment to Mississippi over the next few years. Las Vegas- based Harrah's, the world's largest casino company by sales, plans to spend more than $1 billion to expand the 30-acre campus it owns in Biloxi.
Las Vegas-based MGM Mirage, the second-largest U.S. gaming company, has spent more than $550 million revamping its $800 million property in Biloxi and plans more growth in the coming months; the privately-financed Broadwater Resort plans to build a $1 billion, 1,900-room hotel and two casinos on 240 acres in West Biloxi.
"A byproduct of Katrina will be bigger and better casinos," George Corchis, president of MGM's Beau Rivage hotel and casino in Biloxi, said in an interview. "I'm anticipating doing better than we were before the storm."
Mississippi officials say they have no desire to resemble Las Vegas: There will be no strip clubs or 24-hour wedding chapels. Concern about such byproducts of gaming caused New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to abandon a plan to expand onshore casinos in his city.
"There's too much deep, rich culture that was threatened by just an unabashed run at casino gambling," Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu, who is leading his state's tourism efforts, said in an interview.
The Nassau Guardian
