Friday, April 1, 2005 | 9:54 a.m.
BILOXI, Miss. -- The Mississippi Gaming Commission will decide in an April 13 meeting whether Silver Slipper Casino Venture can operate the President Casino in Biloxi until the resort's new owners start redeveloping the property.
Officials said approval would avoid putting the 700 President employees temporarily out of work. The only interruption would be a 12-hour changeover on April 15.
Silver Slipper will operate the Broadwater hotels as well as the casino. Later, the President's gambling barge will be moved to Silver Slipper's permanent site in Hancock County.
"We're 100 percent optimistic that our request will be granted," said John Ferrucci, chief operating officer of Silver Slipper. "We still have a few hurdles left. None of them in anyone's opinion are deal breakers."
The new owners have hired EDSA, an urban planning and landscape architecture firm that did design work on the Atlantis development in the Bahamas and four Disney resorts in Florida, to develop a master plan for the 240-acre President Casino Broadwater Resort property.
The new casino is likely to go on the north end of the Broadwater marina closer to U.S. 90, said Roy Anderson, one of the partners in the new ownership group, Broadwater Development LLP.
Broadwater Development, which was the high bidder for the property in a bankruptcy auction, plans to sell the gambling barge to Silver Slipper and replace it with a bigger casino.
When Silver Slipper takes over operations, the President Casino will close at 12:01 a.m. on April 15 and then reopen at noon the same day.
"The Gaming Commission has been really cooperative," Ferrucci said. "They've really proven when they say they're pro-business, it's not just lip service. They've answered every question and given us all the support we needed. We couldn't be more thankful."
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Information from: The Sun Herald, http://www.sunherald.com _centerline(PROFILE _centerline(COUNTRY:Bahamas; ISOCOUNTRY3:BHS; UNTOP:419; UN2ND:029; APGROUP:LatinAmerica;) _centerline(COUNTRY:United States; ISOCOUNTRY3:USA; UNTOP:021; APGROUP:NorthAmerica;) _centerline(CAT:Financial;) _centerline(CAT:Travel;) _centerline(CAT:Labor;) _centerline(CAT:Gambling;) _centerline(CAT:Wiesen;) _centerline(SRC:AP; ST:MS;) _centerline)
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