Special session convened to tackle hurricane recovery

Emily Wagster Pettus

Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2005 | 11:33 a.m.

JACKSON, Miss. -- Mississippi legislators have convened a special session to handle Hurricane Katrina recovery issues, including a proposal to let casinos move on shore.

Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, who campaigned in 2003 on preventing the spread of gambling, is proposing to let coast casinos build on or near the shore -- as long as they still have facilities touching water.

Allowing land-based casinos is one of more than 20 topics Barbour has put on the agenda of a special legislative session he called for the state to handle hurricane recovery. The session convenes at 11 a.m. at the Capitol.

Most of the state's 13 coast casinos were heavily damaged when Katrina struck Aug. 29. The hurricane's powerful winds and storm surge tossed some of the massive gambling barges ashore and ripped away walls of others, exposing twisted metal skeletons.

Some casino companies now say they want to develop on land; others say they'll rebuild where they are.

The state legalized casinos in 1990 but restricted them to the waters of the Mississippi River or the Gulf of Mexico.

"We have learned the hard way that making them float on water is not a good idea," Barbour said Monday.

Religious groups including the Mississippi Baptist Convention and the American Family Association are lobbying against any change in state casino laws.

As lawmakers arrived for the session today, three men from Brookhaven's nondenominational Church of the Lord Jesus Christ stood outside to protest against gambling.

"Many ask at this hour, 'What will we do without the boats? What will we do without the casinos?' " shouted Kendall Boutwell, the church's pastor.

"The Lord will provide," Boutwell said.

Harrah's Entertainment Inc., which owns the Grand Casinos in Biloxi and Gulfport, is promoting the phrase "shore-based gaming." The company is asking for a change in law to allow casinos to build 2,000 feet from the shore.

Jan Jones, Harrah's senior vice president of government relations and communications, said casino companies could build larger "integrated resorts" with convention space and other tourist attractions if they could go on shore. She said if casinos must remain over water, there's not enough space for the resorts' non-gambling offerings.

A Mississippi law enacted earlier this year allows casinos to build on pilings to provide some protection in storms, but none of them had time to do so.

Jones said building on land is safer than building over water, even on pilings.

"Some of those barges are the size of two football fields and (Katrina) threw them across the road like they were down pillows," she said.

Part of the Grand Casino in Gulfport was tossed onto the beach-side highway, U.S. 90. Destruction crews blew the barge up last week in preparation for removing the wreckage.

Asked if Harrah's will rebuild on the coast if casinos must remain over water, Jones said she didn't know. But she added: "We're going to try to do the right thing by the state and by our employees."

On Monday, the Mississippi Economic Council board of directors endorsed allowing casinos to go on land, but only near the coast shoreline.

"The Mississippi Gulf Coast is rich in diversity -- and gaming is part of that mix," MEC president Blake Wilson said in a news release.

"The Legislature can help assure that the industry rebuilds by allowing reconstruction of casinos on dry land," Wilson said. "But we also must be mindful of the need to follow the general spirit of the original law."

Barbour is putting a plethora of other issues before lawmakers during the special session, including a proposal to create a loan program for small businesses.