29, destroying most of the waterfront casinos and shuttering the remainder. Since its introduction in Mississippi in the early 1990s, casino gambling has transformed this stretch of the coast, often called the “Redneck Riviera,” from the object of regional jokes to a booming resort area. “We wanted to come here and spend our money and help support the local economy,” Call said, straining to be heard above the din of the casino’s crowded restaurant. “We’ve been here since morning, and I’ve already spent his $300,” said Christine Pitsos of Pensacola, Fla., nodding toward her fiance, Robert Call, after a day on the gaming floor. A decision on whether to reopen the casino has not been made. Mississippi casinos -A graphic in Saturday’s Section A on Mississippi’s recovering casino industry said Casino Magic in Biloxi planned to reopen within nine months. The gamblers are back, and they are bringing huge amounts of money to this beaten coastline’s most important industry.

In here, nearly six months after the costliest natural disaster in U.S.

The sound of power tools is drowned out by the incessant blooping of the slots. From the balconies of the Isle of Capri Casino, Mississippi’s once-glittering coastline spreads toward the horizon like an allegory of bad luck - a nightmare vision of heaped debris, buildings stripped to beams and traffic lights blinking on tilt.īut in the second-floor gambling parlor, an alternate, windowless reality is hermetically sealed from the devastation.

Isle of capri casino biloxi mississippi