Page 12 - Mississippi/Louisiana Gaming News - Fall, 2022

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the prosperous new industry. Case in point: Tunica County became debt-free in 1995, setting aside millions in escrow.
Several more casinos opened between 1995 and 1997. Jack Binion, founder of Horseshoe Gaming Corporation, had his sights set on Tunica County. Wanting to be close to Memphis, he purchased land from a local family, paying hundreds of dollars more per acre than market value. He opened the Horseshoe Casino in Tunica in 1995.
That same year, Bally’s Saloon opened in Tunica, and Harrah’s opened its second Tunica property at the site of
the old Southern Belle Casino on Casino Strip Boulevard. Lighthouse Point opened in Greenville. In 1996 Grand Casinos, Inc., headed by gaming pioneer Lyle Berman, opened Grand Casino Tunica as “the largest casino between Las Vegas and Atlantic City.” A hotel with 148 rooms and 40 suites was directly connected to the Grand and the Grand’s Veranda Resort Hotel was located nearby with 532 rooms and 36 suites. In 1998, Berman and Grand Casinos, Inc., sold their Tunica and Biloxi resorts to the gaming division of Hilton Hotels, with the combined assets being spun
off to create a new corporation called Park Place Entertainment (later renamed Caesars Entertainment). Another hotel would be added to the complex in 1999. The Terrace Hotel and Spa was the largest, containing 563 rooms and 327 suites. In 2005, Caesars Entertainment was acquired by Harrah’s Entertainment, which converted back to the Caesars Entertainment name in 2010.
In Biloxi, the Palace Casino opened early in 1997 and Imperial Palace Casino closed out the year with the distinction of having Mississippi’s tallest hotel with 32 floors.
Wynn Win
Biloxi’s Lady Luck closed
in 1998, but the city where
it all began soon gained its largest property as casino mogul Steve Wynn’s Beau Rivage held its star-studded opening in March 1999. Beau Rivage opened with 1,740 rooms and suites, fully grown magnolia trees, a health spa, retail shops, meeting and convention space, and 12 restaurants — more amenities
than any other property in the state. Isle of Capri Tunica opened in 1999, and in 2000, the company opened its fourth and fifth casinos in Natchez and in Lula, respectively. Both properties were also named Isle of Capri.
The next five years ushered in a series of changes in ownerships — and names, as in the case of Harrah’s Casino Vicksburg, which became Horizon Casino. By this time, casinos moved riverboats to floating barges, and properties were expanded with more amenities added. Fine-dining restaurants, top-name entertainment and exciting giveaways enticed and delighted visitors and locals, alike. The industry continued to see success.
In Biloxi, the new revenue stream funded hundreds of millions in new public facilities, including a public safety center and three new fire stations to house more police officers and firefighters,
new recreation centers and ball fields, and enhanced city services while cutting the tax rate in half. For a community that had not built a new school since 1960, gaming taxes helped fund the construction of a $35 million state- of-the-art high school and three new elementary schools, while keeping school taxes the lowest on the Coast.
At its height prior to Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, the Biloxi casino industry provided 15,000 direct jobs and thousands more for businesses that serviced it. The unemployment rate was 4 percent.
Katrina & The Move To Land
The hurricane on Aug. 29, 2005, dubbed the largest natural disaster in history, brought the Gulf Coast’s casino industry to a standstill. In Jackson, legislators moved rapidly, and after much debate, achieved the passage of the new shore-based legislation, allowing casinos
Casinos brought big jackpots and countless charitable donations to Mississippi during their first 30 years here. (Above) Megabucks hit for more than $5 million in 1995. (Below) Isle of Capri supported the Gulf Coast Community Foundation.
to rebuild on land. The rebranded IP Casino Resort Spa was the first to reopen in December 2005.
Several properties reopened within months of Katrina, shifting their infrastructures and using space differently. In Gulfport, the owners of
the Copa Casino purchased the former Grand Casino hotel, and used that footprint to create the land-based Island View Casino Resort in September 2006. Silver Slipper Casino, which took over the barge that once was the President Casino in Biloxi, moved it to Hancock County, opening in November 2006.
Hard Rock Casino, which was ready to open at the end of August 2005 and never got the chance to do so, opened in July 2007, becoming Biloxi’s first new casino since 1999.
In Vicksburg, Isle of Capri became DiamondJacks Casino in 2006; Riverwalk Casino opened in 2008; Rainbow Casino, which was acquired in 2010 by Isle of Capri Casinos, changed its brand to Lady Luck in 2012; and Horizon Casino was bought, sold and eventually closed as Grand Station Casino in 2012.
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12 MISSISSIPPI GAMING NEWS
FALL 2022
State and city leaders were on hand when casino mogul Steve Wynn (looking up) opened Beau Rivage in 1999.