A Gambling Dilemma in Mississippi

Mississippi's lucrative Gulf gambling casinos were all wiped out in Katrina, which caused an immediate loss of about 25,000 jobs and $500,000 a day in tax revenue for the state. The requirement that the casinos be on floating barges guaranteed their doom when the 30 foot storm surge washed them around like leaves in a gutter.

Now the state is trying to figure out what to do, and they're apparently not planning to give up their addition to gambling revenue.

Just a month after Hurricane Katrina smashed Mississippi's casino gambling boats, the state Legislature opened a special session Tuesday devoted to how and whether to salvage an industry that has been central to the economy of the Gulf Coast.

Saying that placing such structures on the water is no longer safe, Gov. Haley Barbour instantly generated controversy by proposing that casinos, previously restricted to boats moored along the state's southern coast or the Mississippi River, be allowed to move as much as 1,500 feet inland. The casinos had been built on barges because, under Mississippi law, they had to float to keep them physically separate from nearby communities.

Mr. Barbour called the moment an opportunity to rebuild the coast into a world-class destination resort made up of sprawling, state-of-the-art entertainment complexes rather than simply rebuilding what was there. "In 30 years, when I'm dead and gone, people will look at the south coast and look at what it has become," Mr. Barbour said. "If it has become just another version of what it had been, we will have failed."

But many of the state's religious leaders, who have opposed casino gambling from the beginning, were trying to seize the moment to shut down the casinos. "It is unfortunate that with all the human needs in Mississippi right now, the gambling-political complex has chosen this unfortunate time to try to expand its influence," said William Perkins, spokesman for the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board.

Of course, "entertainment complexes" is a nice euphemism for "casinos", which is really the only thing most of the leaders are interested in building on the coast. There's just too much gold in them thar slot machines, not to mention the impact of losing so many jobs in a state which doesn't have an excess of employment opportunities.

Casinos are definitely a mixed blessing for a community. While they provide jobs and tax revenue, they also tend to attract crime, drug problems, and for those who are unable to control their gambling urges, financial disaster. The overall impact on the social fabric of the community is generally negative.

It looks like there may be pretty nasty fight as the gambling issue is debated in Mississippi.