Gulf Coast casinos six feet over

February 26, 2006|Keith O'Brien, Globe Correspondent

The storm heaved the huge casino barges across Beach Boulevard and months later they are still there: hulking reminders of what used to be on the Gulf Coast. People seeing them for the first time stop and take pictures of the barges, once awash in neon and now bound for a scrap-metal future. Then they climb back into their cars and drive away. There are ghosts on these beaches.

But look again, past the strange, landlocked vessels and the miles of empty waterfront. There are outposts on the horizon and inside those outposts there is hope. And alongside hope, lots of action. Three casinos are open in Biloxi and on weekends it takes a shoehorn to slip into a spot at a card table.

The Gulf Coast has not rebounded from Hurricane Katrina's blows. It had 12 casinos before the storm made landfall in August and a 13th was about to open. But the coast is on its way to recovery. As it turns out, it was holding the ace card all along. Now, perhaps more than ever, people want to gamble.

''The numbers have been off the charts," said Larry Gregory, executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission. ''I was absolutely in shock when I saw the numbers. It was absolutely amazing."

Gaming in Mississippi is typically a $2.8 billion industry, and even with 12 of its 30 casinos out of commission for nearly four months after the storm, gaming revenues still topped $2.4 billion last year. Inland casinos that were spared actually saw double-digit percentage increases in revenue in the last quarter of 2005. Then came what Gregory called the real shocker.

The three casinos that opened in Biloxi -- the IP Hotel & Casino on Dec. 22, the Isle of Capri on Dec. 26, and the Palace Casino Resort on Dec. 30 -- took in $14.5 million by year's end, more than seven times what the entire Gulf Coast casino industry typically makes in a week.

This trend is not limited to Mississippi. Since Katrina, Louisiana gaming revenues are also up. There, riverboat casinos took in a single-month record $177 million in December. Why this is, no one can say for sure. What is clear is that the Gulf Coast is doubling down on its gaming industry as it looks to rebuild its shattered shoreline.

''What are we going to become?" said George Conwill, chief financial officer of the Palace. ''I guess that's up to us and how we rebuild. The good news is, we don't have anything to tear down. That was done by God."

In 1992, before casinos floated into Biloxi, Gulfport, and Bay St. Louis, local restaurateur Bobby Mahoney called Biloxi ''a lonely lady in waiting." The coast had been hit hard by Hurricane Camille in 1969, a storm that killed 259 people, and it took another, man-made blow when Interstate 10 opened in the 1970s. Travelers could now bypass these beachside towns. The lonely lady grew lonelier.