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Sharon Harris: Mother Nature is not to be messed with
Humanity can fight many things, but Mother Nature isn’t one of them. In the 1970s, there was a successful series of margarine commercials on American television. The ads promised the margarine was so good it could trick Mother Nature into believing it was butter.
At that very moment, a larger-than-life woman dressed in white appeared with an angry expression on her face. Releasing thunder and lightning she yelled out, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature”, which reminded everyone who was boss. It was a funny bit.
In real life, destruction and the wrath of Mother Nature isn’t so funny. Just a week after the Southern Gaming Summit brought industry executives from across the South to Mississippi’s Gulfport/Biloxi region in early May, casinos up and down the mighty Mississippi River faced a devastating scenario.
Torrential rains in late April forced America’s largest river to rise, unable to empty quickly enough into its tributaries. For several days in May, the river rose to levels unseen in more than 70 years. Up and down the Mississippi, the scene throughout 107 counties in eight states was virtually the same…overflowing river banks that destroyed property and lives.
Almost every casino company was affected. The Isle of Capri casinos felt the impact in more than one state. They closed and reopened multiple venues in Missouri, Iowa and Mississippi.
During these emergency weeks, 15 Mississippi casinos were closed at some time or another. Seventeen Mississippi gaming facilities stretch from Tunica – in the northwestern portion of the state near Memphis, Tennessee – to Natchez in the south.
According to the Mississippi Gaming Commission’s figures for the past five years, they typically generate between $100 million and $160 million in gross gaming revenues each month, employing approximately 12,000 employees. The American Gaming Association (AGA) reports that in 2010, the Tunica region was the number seven casino market in the US ($926.92 million) and Biloxi ranked as eighth ($830.86 million).
Once again, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour’s leadership skills have been tested. While not quite as catastrophic as 2005, when Hurricane Katrina destroyed every Gulf Coast casino within the region, Mississippi again faces mass chaos and loss.
Immediately after Katrina, Barbour and the state’s lawmakers quickly passed legislation allowing the Gulf Coast casinos to be moved 800 feet inland from the water. He claimed the change was not expansion; instead, he called it a move towards stability, safety and the state’s future economic vitality. However, the rest of the state’s riverboat casinos along the Mississippi remained subject to the original law that mandated that each be situated on a floating stationary barge.
Webster Franklin, president of the Tunica Convention and Visitors Bureau, acknowledged that the state’s gambling industry faced hardships because of the recession. He lamented the flood’s timing, coinciding with their anticipated casino recovery. Some reports estimated the some casinos would be closed for several weeks.
MGM International’s George Corchus, president and COO of the Gold Strike in Tunica, told a television news reporter that the access roads and parking lots were under water. All nine Tunica casinos were closed at some point, costing untold millions.
Corchus said these nine Tunica properties average $90 million in gross gaming revenues during an average May, and $10 million in state taxes. That excludes the millions in income and taxes from all other non-gaming amenities.
As usual, the gaming companies who do business in those affected regions proved their worth. Each casino paid its employees during the closure. The staff received full pay – including their estimated tips – and also earned their standard benefits and all other customary services.
The gaming corporations and their employees also stepped up within their home communities more than many smaller companies with fewer resources. Employees worked with the local Red Cross, Salvation Army and United Way branches, plus at area food banks, to help the public ride out the economic woes that resulted from the flooding.
Gaming companies established multiple funds and agencies to offer emergency communications, help displaced employees find rental housing, complete complicated Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) applications for financial assistance and apply for disaster relief grants to tide them over.
Congratulations to our industry’s companies like Isle of Capri, MGM International, Boyd Gaming, Caesars, Tropicana and others. They once again took the lead to prove their rightful place and value as good corporate citizens in the communities they serve.
I wonder what the anti-gaming crowd thinks now.
The AGA just released its annual “State of the States” survey, offering enough fascinating information to fill an entire column. Next month, I’ll devote some ink to what we have learned.
