HARRISON COUNTY, MS (WLOX) -
Wednesday marked a milestone in coast history. On August 1, 1992, the first legal casino in Mississippi opened on Biloxi's Point Cadet. The Isle of Capri was the first of more than a dozen to come.
When the two Isle of Capri riverboats opened for business, Bill Kilduff, a former executive, was right there. From his perspective, he knew something special was happening.
"The day we opened up, the line was a mile long, it was a hundred degrees out, and people were standing out in the sun. We were bringing water to them," Kilduff recalled. "It was just an unbelievable experience. At that point, we said, 'Man, anything can happen now.'"
Something did happen years later. Hurricane Katrina ravaged the industry, tossing gaming barges around like toys. The law had to be changed to allow for land based gaming, but it was a tough sell. Hank Zuber serves in the state house, and remembers pleading for passage.
"Our people back home are hurting, they need these jobs. And we were able to persuade the speaker to allow the legislation to come to a vote," Zuber said.
Casinos patrons have been involved in crime, the worst incident in 2001 when three people were shot inside Casino Magic Biloxi. The shooter killed himself. But there was good news on the crime front as well.
"I think it was kind of a consensus among law enforcement that when casinos came here, that we were immediately going to see this big increase in crime and we just didn't have that," Biloxi Police Chief John Miller said.
Coast casinos employ more than 11,000 people. In the first quarter of this year, almost four million people came to the coast for a casino visit, and stayed in some of the more than 5000 casino hotel rooms.
It's been a success story, but there have been failures. Nine casinos have opened and closed. One, the original $700 million Margaritaville Casino on Biloxi's Casino Row hardly got out of the ground before the financial plug was pulled.
Casinos have been good corporate citizens, donating millions of dollars to charity and helping various causes, like these Hard Rock employees helping to build a transitional home Wednesday. Jennifer Garrett is one of the volunteers.
"We have a group involved with the cafe called the 'Ambassadors of Rock' and we do a lot of charitable work within the community," Garrett said.
Perhaps one of the boldest gambles in 20 years of gaming on the coast came a couple of years ago when officials with the Palace Casino decided to spend $50 million on renovations, and go smoke free. Not an ashtray to be found. It's one of the few casinos in the country to do so. So, was it worth the risk?
"The compliments we get from both groups, visitors and employees, are a testimony to fact that it was a good idea," Palace General Manager Keith Crosby said. "Was it tough on us originally? Absolutely. Have we recovered from the impact? Yes, we have."
Most casinos are owned by large corporations. But not the Island View in Gulfport. Two natives of the city are partners, and that has advantages, according to partner Rick Carter.
"We don't have a real big board that we have to go an convince that we need to do something. If we see something that needs to be changed, we do it immediately," Carter said.
What does the future hold? It's logical to ask the boss at the coast's newest casino. That would be Karen Sock of Margaritaville.
"I believe that we'll continue to see a positive future here and that we'll see great brands entering the market and we'll see it continue to grow," Sock predicted.
Perhaps the most dramatic statistic about the impact of casinos on the coast is to look at the actual dollars. They have grossed more than $19 billion since August 1, 1992.
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