Hurricane Katrina didn't just wreck metro New Orleans. Just to Louisiana's east, the Mississippi Gulf Coast went through an ordeal even more trying that Hurricane Camille.
A wall of water 24 to 28 feet high hit the Mississippi coast when Katrina made landfall. It erased beach homes and took the coast's massive casino barges and tossed them aside like bathtub toys. When it was over, the Mississippi Gaming Commission's Executive Director, Larry Gregory, says it was like nothing he had ever seen.
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"Seeing these barges, that we opened up on water, sitting up on land, had one sitting on top of a Holiday Inn," he recalled.
As gaming commission head, Gregory flew out to Las Vegas to meet personally with each of the casino companies that had properties in Mississippi.
"Each one came back to us and said 'yes, we're committed to coming back.' And although they said that, all of them said 'we're not coming back under the same rules, being on water. We've got to come back on land,'" said Gregory.
In a special session, the Mississippi legislature agreed... allowing the coast's casinos to build as far as 800 feet from the beach. And by December, the IP Casino in Biloxi reopened... and the crowd was ready for it.
"It was remarkable," recalled Gregory. "It was more people than I've ever seen during any opening during my tenure at the gaming commission."
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Now the head of the Mississippi Gaming and Hospitality Association, Gregory says the coast's casinos are doing more business than ever.
It was a decision that Louisiana would mimic years later, in allowing its riverboat casinos to create gambling space that wasn't on boats.
"We always looked at what Mississippi had done, and it was a smart thing on their part to do that," said former Louisiana State Senator and former Louisiana Gaming Commission head Ronnie Johns.
In the legislature, Johns sponsored the bill that allowed Louisiana's riverboat casinos become land-based.
Johns said Louisiana's decision was more about staying competitive in a changing gaming market, but like Mississippi, he says the change has led to increased winnings at Louisiana's casinos.
