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Biloxi casinos report record results16 July 2007BILOXI, Mississippi -- As reported by the Biloxi Sun Herald: "This seaside gambling resort along a stretch of the Gulf Coast, sometimes called the "Redneck Riviera," has 40 percent fewer hotel rooms and only two-thirds as many slot machines as it did before Hurricane Katrina. "The bridge connecting the casinos in this popular tourist destination to Alabama, the Florida panhandle and other points east remains closed, and Mayor A.J. Holloway estimates that as many as 15 percent of the city's pre-Katrina residents still have not returned. "Yet business in the gambling halls of Biloxi has reached all-time highs in recent months, so much so that Larry Gregory, the executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission, has half-jokingly barred his staff from uttering the phrase 'record-setting' because 'it was becoming too redundant.' "A similar story has unfolded in New Orleans, where tourism is still in the doldrums and only 60 percent of the pre-Katrina population has returned nearly two years after the hurricane. The casinos there seem to be faring even better than their Gulf Coast cousins. "...Casino executives say they just give people a place to go for diversion. Meanwhile, perhaps their biggest challenge is to talk about their success without betraying too much glee, given the pain — financial and otherwise — still felt by virtually every other industry in town..." |