The state of Mississippi has the third-largest volume of casino gambling of any venue in North America. Approximately thirty casino boats generate nearly $2 billion in gambling wins each year. The state also has one of the largest Native American casinos – the Silver Star run by the Las Vegas Boyd Group on behalf of the Mississippi Choctaw tribe. The casino, near Philadelphia, has almost 100 tables and 3,000 machines. The state has no other legal gambling activity – no lottery gambling or charity games.
Mississippi did not set out a deliberate course for casino gambling. Instead, the state seemed to just let it happen. Casino-style gambling arrived in Mississippi aboard the cruise ship Europa Star on 19 December 1987. The 157-foot ship with a Panamanian registration docked at Biloxi and began a series of “cruises to nowhere”. Gambling activities on the ship included roulette, bingo, and slot machines. Short round-trip cruises were made three miles offshore of Biloxi but within the boundaries of a series of barrier islands. The ship operators claimed they were in international waters. The state attorney general sought to end the gambling by claiming the ship was in state-controlled waters until it was three miles outside the barrier islands.
Before the matter was resolved in court, the legislature took up the issue. At first legislators sided with the attorney general. In March 1989, however, a law was passed allowing large ships – at least 300 feet long – to conduct gaming in the waters inside the islands. One ship, the Pride of Mississippi, operated under provisions of the law for one season; however, it could not operate at a profit. Nonetheless, businesses along the Gulf Coast pleaded to the legislature for more open gambling rules, as the ship had generated significant tourist revenue for them. The legislature now had the Iowa model for riverboat gambling and decided to duplicate it – to an extent.
On 23 March 1990, the governor signed into law an act permitting casino gambling on riverboats. The boats had to be at least 150 feet long and located in navigable tributaries and in oxbow lakes in counties bordering the Mississippi River or on the Gulf Coast. The counties were given the option of having elections banning the boats from their waters. A measure describing a regulatory framework almost identical to that in Nevada was enacted into law in the summer of 1990.
The Mississippi law is distinguished from other riverboat laws in that there was never an expectation that the riverboats would have to leave shore. There was no cruising requirement. Eventually the facilities lost all pretense of being navigable operations. Instead, barges were moved into the permissible waters; gambling structures were constructed on top of the vessels, and hotel and restaurant facilities were constructed around the barges. The barges included flotation mechanisms so they could rise and fall as water levels changed during flood seasons. Most gamblers cannot perceive that they are over water when they are gambling. In addition to fees, the boats pay taxes of 8 percent on their gambling wins to the state and additional taxes of 10 percent of the state amount to local governments. The casinos are open twenty-four hours a day and unlike the situation in other riverboat states, players may enter and leave gambling areas whenever they wish to do so.
Most of the boats are located in several distinct areas of the state. The Gulf Coast (Biloxi and Gulfport) has a dozen casino boats; Tunica County near Memphis, Tennessee, has about ten boats; there are four boats in the Greenville area and four boats in the Vicksburg area. The largest casino is Steve Wynn’s Beau Rivage, which opened in Biloxi in 1999 with 1,000 hotel rooms.
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