Hard Rock Biloxi closer to rebuilding

April 23

So many of us online casinos players have been so preoccupied by the surge of new online casinos that we haven’t paid much attention to the Gulf Coast’s reconstruction efforts. The hurricane ravaged area in Mississippi has pretty much demolished all of about a dozen casinos that dotted the Gulf Coast region. Many of the New Orleans and Lake Charles area casinos are back to game play. But the Gulf Coast still has an uphill battle to win.

Most all of the casinos in the Gulf Coast area that were affected by the massive hurricane Katrina are rebuilding. At least they all have proposed plans. Some of them are already nearly finished. We know that gamblers that usually take frequent trips from nearby Florida, and Alabama are ready for the area to reopen casinos. The area’s local economy so depends on it too.

One casino favorite in the area – the Hard Rock Casino & Hotel in Biloxi has made it one very big step closer to reopening. On Thursday April 20, the Mississippi Gaming Commission voted in favor of a new purchasing deal made by a New York holding company to buy into the damaged Gulf Coast casino.

In fact, the he very hip and brand new $235 million casino an resort was actually only three days away from its grand opening when Katrina sank its foundation – a barge. All Mississippi Gulf Coast casinos areas were/are built on floating barges due to state regulations. Katrina’s massive storm surge was the number one factor in devastating the Gulf Coast casinos.

After Katrina damaged the casino and resort on August 29, the so close to opening Hard Rock was a total loss. As the damaged casino became a major cash drain due to the fact that it was build for a reported $325 million and never saw one cent of earnings, the casino was in desperate need of new investors that can provide new cash flow. This is that case for many of the area’s casinos too, but they at least had income from already being in business The company that is buying an ownership stake in the Hard Rock Casino and Resort in will be spending $89 million to acquire the ownership stake. The company will also be offering to purchase $160 million in bond debt owed on the casino and resort.

It is being reported that the deal would most likely close within the next couple of weeks. From the very beginning of when the hurricane ravaged the Gulf Coast area, many online casinos were quick to set up fund raisers and even some offered off shore jobs to out of work casino employees. In fact many online casino companies are located on islands that have also been affected by hurricanes in the past years. So, they know what it means to a local economy when the much needed casinos go down for the count. Many island nations even started to allow online casino gaming companies to headquarter on them because the revenues they bring into these tiny islands are just what the local economies need. Many island nations that now have online casino companies on them are suffering from a lack in tourism, travelers just haven’t been staying on some island as they did before because of so much fowl weather and damage sustained by hurricanes.

We will be watching to see how the casinos in the Gulf Coast region fare after reconstruction is complete – it will e great to see the local economy get a much needed jolt.

No word on exactly when the casino will be able to reopen yet, but we will follow any news related issues regarding the reopening.

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