“The properties that came back are much nicer than the ones that were here before,” IP Biloxi General Manager Duncan McKenzie said.Ĭaesars Entertainment Operating Co. Almost all upgraded their gaming floors, hotel rooms and other attractions as they rebuilt. Some casinos were shifted to new locations, and some downsized. In Gulfport, the Harrah’s (now Caesars) Entertainment-owned Grand Casino and the privately-held Copa were combined into a single hotel-casino.īut Katrina was more than a wrecking ball. The site is being converted into a water park and resort with restaurants and a 373-room, nongaming hotel. Louis, Gulfport and Biloxi.Ĭasino Magic in Biloxi, owned by Las Vegas-based Pinnacle Entertainment, was never rebuilt. Within days of the law’s passage, several gaming companies announced plans to re-create their damaged casinos, on dry land.Ī decade later, 11 casinos operate in Bay St. The October 2005 change was intended as an incentive to rebuild, and the industry did just that. Before Katrina, gaming had to be conducted on boats, barges or buildings on piers. Haley Barbour approved changes in state gaming laws, allowing casinos to move off the water as long as they were within 800 feet of the shore. Storm cleanup wasn’t yet in full-swing when Mississippi lawmakers and Gov. It took a few days for the national media, which focused attention on the flooding in New Orleans, to realize the Gulf Coast had also suffered extensive damage.īut unlike New Orleans, political infighting didn’t slow the recovery. “People took their time deciding what to do, but this was a place no one was going to give up on.” “I don’t think anyone ever thought about not rebuilding,” said Wade Howk, chief financial officer of the Hollywood Casino Gulf Coast and the Boomtown Biloxi, which are operated by Penn National Gaming. Before Hurricane Katrina, the Gulf Coast was the nation’s third-largest casino market, producing almost $1.23 billion in gaming revenue in 2004, trailing only Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Yet neither Ferrucci nor other Gulf Coast casino operators ever considered folding their hand. Nevada-based gaming companies had invested billions of dollars in creating a destination that drew gamblers from the Deep South and neighboring states, only to see it wiped away by an unstoppable force of nature. called Hurricane Katrina the single-biggest disaster ever to hit the casino industry. 90 bridges were destroyed, cutting off east-west access to the Biloxi and Gulfport communities.Īt the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas a few weeks after the storm, then-American Gaming Association CEO Frank Fahrenkopf Jr. The Gulf Coast was in shambles for years. Many of those gaming employees lost their homes. The human toll included the loss of 17,000 casino and hospitality jobs. Some of the machines - with blackjack tables, slot tokens, gaming chips and other gambling equipment - ended up at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. More than 19,000 slot machines were rendered useless and had to be destroyed. Seawater and debris inundated hotel rooms, convention areas and restaurants. Other casino barges were destroyed or heavily damaged at their docks. The massive storm had driven the barge three-quarters of a mile down the beach, where it came to rest on the north side of U.S. 29, 2005, leaving behind blown-out buildings and a stark landscape.Ī few days after the storm subsided, Ferrucci returned to the marina to find the President gone. Louis and Biloxi.Īll were destroyed by the Category 5 hurricane, which packed wind gusts exceeding 135 mph and pushed a 35-foot storm surge well inland on Aug. The President was one of 13 casinos in a 40-mile stretch of picturesque U.S. “You could tell that this one was different.” “I had been through this several times,” said Ferrucci, who has experienced his share of hurricanes in 22 years as a Biloxi casino operator. Two days later, he was told to evacuate the area: Hurricane Katrina was bearing down on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. John Ferrucci recalls standing at the Broadwater Marina on a humid, late summer morning in August 2005, trying to determine the best way to slip the moorings of the President Casino barge and float it 35 miles west to Hancock County, where it would reopen as the Silver Slipper.
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