Page 76 - South Mississippi Living - August, 2022

HISTORY OF
GAMING
story by Lori Beth Susman
photos courtesy of Mississippi Gaming News, City of Biloxi and Rich Westfall
Isle of Capri Casino Biloxi on opening day in 1992.
Guests waiting to enter Mississippi’s first casino, Isle of Capri Casino Biloxi.
Biloxi Belle Casino, 1992.
It is a story that has been told many times in the past, but this year, the story has a special twist as August 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of casino gaming in Mississippi. It began with cruises to nowhere and grew into a multi-billion- dollar industry seeing some of its highest revenues in recent years.
In fact, Mississippi casinos generated total revenue of $3.3 billion last year
with nearly $2.7 billion in gross gaming revenue — the most since 2008. Gross gaming revenue on the Mississippi Gulf Coast actually reached an all-time high of more than $1.6 billion.
Gaming in Mississippi, and more specifically along the Gulf Coast, got its start in the late 1980s, when the Europa Star began sailing during the
administration of then-Mayor Gerald Blessey. The Europa Star offered gambling cruises in the Gulf of Mexico from Point Cadet, located on the tip
of the Biloxi peninsula, to waters 12
miles out, south of Ship Island. Known
as cruises to nowhere, this form of unregulated gaming brought little in the way of revenues to the local area, which was suffering financially. This modest start can be traced as the beginning of today’s Mississippi gaming industry, which at one point in its three decades saw nearly 30 casinos statewide, directly employing as many as 30,000 people.
Following the legalization of riverboat gaming by the state of Iowa in July 1989, South Mississippi business and tourism leaders saw legalized gaming as an
opportunity. Not only
would casinos bring in
tax money, but those visiting the local casinos would most likely spend additional money in the area. The economic possibilities were encouraging.
Sen. Tommy Gollott introduced
a bill to allow gambling aboard cruise ships, and in June 1990, the Legislature approved dockside gaming on the Mississippi River. “It was one of the greatest pieces of legislation we ever did in the Legislature,” Gollott said in an interview in 2017. “The gaming industry has done wonders for the state of Mississippi.”
In the two years following the state’s vote, counties voted their approval for
76 | August 2022
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