New Orleans Leads Gulf Coast Casino Boom
Business in the city is brisk and $5 billion invested in Mississippi could catapult the Gulf Coast to third nationally in prestige, size and number of gamblers.
Gambling in the South has rebounded and may soon reclaim the tertiary spot behind Las Vegas and Atlantic City, thanks in large part to brisk activity in the casinos of still-devastated New Orleans.
A year after the one-two punch of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Louisiana casinos are doing a landmark business. With just one month left in the current fiscal year, the state has raked in $473.8 million as its share of the gambling take, up 14% from the same period last year. From March to May, the casinos banked $673.2 million, also up 14% from year-ago levels. All this in spite of the fact that three casinos were shuttered after the 2005 storms.
By comparison, the American Gaming Association reports, all state-licensed casinos nationwide recorded just a 4.8% increase in revenue last year. Figures for early 20067 were not yet available. Opinions differ on what is fuelling such brisk business. Operators say their old customers have simply returned. This may not be completely true, given that large numbers of former New Orleans residents remain displaced. On the other hand, there are out-of-towners aplenty, given the nationwide increase in travel post 9/11.
With plenty of leisure time on their hands and none too many entertainment choices, FEMA and other workers helping repair damage in the city and in nearby Mississippi could also explain the significant rise in gambling revenue.
New Orleans and Baton Rouge, the capital, accounted for much of the gambling upsurge as did Lake Charles. Reconstruction workers aside, Lake Charles also attracts Texans because of its oil refineries and its strategic location as the urban center of southwest Louisiana. On the horizon is resurgent business by Mississippi Gulf Coast casinos. Hurricane Katrina closed down all casinos in the state.
But the three that have reopened so far took in a total of $246.6 million in the first four months of this year, already more than 50% of the 12-casino gross over the same period in 2005. Since Gov. Haley Barbour pushed legislation permitting onshore casinos at last, investments totaling $5 billion have been recorded. By the time the last slot machine is plugged in, Mississippi threatens to once again overshadow the sole land-based and 14 riverboat casinos Louisiana has.
In New Orleans, by contrast, Mayor Ray Nagin failed to get Gov. Kathleen Blanco to agree licensing more casinos right in the city. The main stumbling block was the state monopoly granted Harrah's Entertainment Inc.'s New Orleans casino in 1992.
Nor can the riverboat casinos compete on equal footing with the new land-based casinos coming in Mississippi. Existing laws permit each one just 30, 000-square feet of gambling space.
