JACKSON — The health of the gaming industry is good in Mississippi as Coast casinos rebuild and reopen following Hurricane Katrina. However, there are threats down the road.
Gaming attorney Dan McDaniel of the Phelps Dunbar law firm in Jackson says the biggest threat to Coast casinos is the possibility of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians building a casino on tribal land in Jackson County.
McDaniel, who made the comments in an address to the Mississippi Economic Forum in Jackson July 26, 2006, says native tribes have no geographic restraints although there is a bill in the U.S. Congress to limit Indian gaming. As sovereign nations, tribes must get permission to open casinos from the Bureau of Indian Affairs but are not bound by state laws. He noted that the bill was recently blocked in the U.S. Senate by Mississippi's Sen. Thad Cochran.
The Choctaws, who own land near Interstate 10 between Ocean Springs and Gautier, have stated they will not open a casino at the site without the support of voters in Jackson County through a non-binding referendum.
Larry Gregory, executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission, says the biggest threat to coastal gaming is another hurricane and only after that danger would he list a Choctaw casino.
In addition to the five casinos already open in Biloxi, the Beau Rivage and Grand are scheduled to open this month. In Gulfport, the Island View Casino, formerly the Copa, plans to open in September followed by the Hollywood Casino, formerly Casino Magic, in Bay St. Louis.
Later this fall a new casino, the Silver Slipper, is slated to open in Hancock County. The Biloxi Hard Rock that was just days away from opening when Katrina struck is planning to open on July 4, 2007.
The Gaming Commission is anxiously awaiting upcoming gaming revenue reports. With only three Biloxi casinos generating $65 million per month in revenue earlier this year, Gregory expects to see a spike, possibly record breaking tally, as more gaming houses open.
McDaniel, who is president of the International Association of Gaming Attorneys, practices gaming law in Mississippi and Louisiana and was actively involved in establishing gaming in Mississippi. He pointed out differences in the regulations of the two states. Mississippi, like Nevada and New Jersey, has unlimited licenses. Currently there are 28 licenses in Mississippi. Louisiana has a state statute that limits the number of licenses to 15. These are given out by a bidding process.
He said the process to obtain a license is long and thorough, comparing the investigations to cabinet level background searches. The investigations are both corporate and individual with every person who owns five percent of an involved company investigated.
"In Louisiana they keep up with all the casino news from the Coast. Whatever runs in The Sun Herald about casinos also runs in The Times Picayune and the Baton Rouge Advocate," McDaniel said.
A major difference in the two states are the other types of gaming in Louisiana that Mississippi does not have. That includes video poker slot machines at truck stops and race tracks.