Casinos in Mississippi have "best year ever"

2007-10-12 15:16:09

The eleven casinos along the Mississippi Gulf Coast are having their best year ever, according to reports.

Biloxi, where the casinos are situated, was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but casinos in the area are keeping the economy up and running, Pat Probst, a security supervisor at Beau Rivage, told the St Petersburg Times.

The newspaper article says that 17,000 people are on the payroll of the casinos and that 70 per cent of all hotel rooms in the area are owned by the companies.

Apparently 5,000 individual customers visit each casino on average per day.

Hurricane Katrina damaged the casino industry in 2005 by destroying all 12 water casinos that were in place.

Casinos are now allowed to build on land and have spent £1.7 billion in re-building over the past two years.

Mississippi is a popular tourist destination for gamblers with Tunica being the third most visited gaming area in the USA, according to visitmississippi.org.