Lady Luck agrees to sell Biloxi casino to Grand Casinos, officials say

Tuesday, April 7, 1998 | 8:48 a.m.

Lady Luck Gaming has signed a letter of intent for a deal that includes both the Lady Luck casino barge and about five acres of beachfront property.

Grand Casinos is expected to close the Lady Luck casino.

The Lady Luck Casino, with its signature smoke-belching dragon, opened in Biloxi in December 1993.

Lady Luck has been selling casino assets in Tunica County, Miss.; Missouri; and Central City, Colo.

Selling its struggling Biloxi casino leaves Lady Luck with profitable casinos in Natchez and Lula in Mississippi and Bettdendorf, Iowa. The company hopes to operate a joint venture hotel-casino with Horseshoe Gaming in Vicksburg and is seeking other projects in Missouri and Vancouer, B.C.

"The company will retain gaming and computer equipment" and property west of the casino on U.S. 90, according to a statement released through Lady Luck spokesman Robert Walsh.

The agreement is subject to regulatory approval and bondholders' consent, the company said.

"Accordingly, there can be no assurances that the transaction will be culminated," the company said.

Federal labor law requires the workers be given 60 days notice.

The anticipated sale would enable Grand Casinos to expand its real estate holdings on Biloxi Beach. Lady Luck is located adjacent to Grand Casino Biloxi and across U.S. 90 from Grand Casinos' unfinished Bayview Hotel.

The deal could give Grand Casinos an opportunity to strengthen its Biloxi operations. The company is expected to lose a chunk of its 40 percent share of the coast gambling market with the opening early next year of Mirage Resorts' Beau Rivage, a $600 million, 1,800-room hotel-casino.