Katrina victims are still in trailers but casinos are booming [View All]

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Casinos boom
December hits record $103.5M

It's been 29 months since Hurricane Katrina shut down every casino on the Coast, but the industry is back and doing better than ever, according to numbers released Thursday that show 2007 was a record year on the Coast and for the state.

"That's pretty awesome," said John Ferrucci, general manager of Silver Slipper Casino in Hancock County. The Coast casinos "took Gov. Barbour at his word when he said, 'I want you to build back bigger and better.'

" Even the casinos that opened quickly after the storm made a commitment to upgrade their facilities, he said.

The Mississippi State Tax Commission reported gross gaming revenue for December, normally one of the slowest months of the year, was a record $103.54 million. That pushed the Coast's total for 2007 to $1.3 billion. The previous record was in 2004, when the casinos won $1.2 billion.

Sun Herald

Trent Lott's BI Dickie Scruggs Katrina class action lawsuit is at a standstill while he is embroiled in federal charges. Other Mississippi lawyers find that this is an opportune time to wrestle the prized Katrina class action lawsuit away from Scruggs.

Katrina victims wait as the Mississippi legal profession sink into decay, but casinos are during OK.