Regulators promote in-state vendors

Emily Wagster Pettus

Friday, Feb. 6, 2004 | 9:13 a.m.

JACKSON, Miss. -- Any time customers order antipasto at the Beau Rivage casino or scoop up heaping salads at the Isle of Capri buffet in Biloxi, they're eating Mike Alise's vegetables.

Alise is president and CEO of Gulf Coast Produce Distributors Inc., and his Biloxi-based company provides fruit and vegetables to 12 coast casinos and several other restaurants.

"We're proud of that," Alise said in a phone interview. "We're giving them good produce, we're open 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Mississippi Gaming Commission officials say they want more in-state businesses to become casino vendors like Alise's company.

To promote that, commission members and director Larry Gregory planned to go to Las Vegas to meet with executives of casinos that operate in Mississippi. Gregory is urging the casino leaders to seek more goods and services from Mississippi vendors.

"Historically, the vendors have been out of state, and we think the industry has matured such that it's time to step up to the plate and start doing business within Mississippi," Gregory said.

Vendors provide everything from seafood for casino restaurants to maid service for hotels and slot machines, cards and poker chips for the casinos.

Gregory said there's nothing in state law that would force the casinos to spend more money with Mississippi companies.

"I think the biggest thing we can do is let the message be loud and clear that is what the Gaming Commission wants and that is what our state Legislature is wanting, to encourage them to do it. And I think that will suffice," he said in an interview after he met with the newly created House Gaming Committee.

Andy Bourland, executive director of the industry-sponsored Mississippi Gaming Association, said Mississippi casinos spend about $1 billion a year on goods and services. He said about half of that is spent with Mississippi companies -- a statistic he calls "a huge success story."

"I think, philosophically, the industry does attempt to do business with Mississippi businesses whenever possible," Bourland said. "Now, there's always room for more."

He said gaming association leaders have met with Legislative Black Caucus members over the past year about increasing contracts for minority vendors at Mississippi casinos.

Rep. Michael Janus, R-Biloxi, is a member of the House Gaming Committee. He said he supports the Gaming Commission's effort to encourage casinos to use more in-state companies because it could boost the economy.

"But, honestly, being a free-market conservative, certainly those folks are businesses, they're legitimate businesses," Janus said of casinos. "If they can find products and services outside the state, that's their prerogative."

Alise said casino contracts have helped Gulf Coast Produce Distributors rise from the verge of bankruptcy in 1996, when he moved from Baton Rouge, La., to the coast and bought the company. He said the company then had three employees and a couple of trucks. It now has 55 employees, runs 18 trucks a day and $13 million in sales a year.

The company recently opened a $1 million warehouse in Biloxi.

"It's because of gaming," said Alise, who's an associate member of the Mississippi Gaming Association.