Katrina victims are still in trailers but casinos are booming

[flashl]

Casinos boom
December hits record $103.5M

It's been 29 months since Hurricane Katrina shut down every casino on the Coast, but the industry is back and doing better than ever, according to numbers released Thursday that show 2007 was a record year on the Coast and for the state.

"That's pretty awesome," said John Ferrucci, general manager of Silver Slipper Casino in Hancock County. The Coast casinos "took Gov. Barbour at his word when he said, 'I want you to build back bigger and better.'

" Even the casinos that opened quickly after the storm made a commitment to upgrade their facilities, he said.

The Mississippi State Tax Commission reported gross gaming revenue for December, normally one of the slowest months of the year, was a record $103.54 million. That pushed the Coast's total for 2007 to $1.3 billion. The previous record was in 2004, when the casinos won $1.2 billion.

Sun Herald

Trent Lott's BI Dickie Scruggs Katrina class action lawsuit is at a standstill while he is embroiled in federal charges. Other Mississippi lawyers find that this is an opportune time to wrestle the prized Katrina class action lawsuit away from Scruggs.

Katrina victims wait as the Mississippi legal profession sink into decay, but casinos are during OK.

[malaise]

1. Why do you hate America?

Business first; people last. Let them wait for the trickle down effect. :sarcasm:

[flashl]

2. Just giving testimony to American's parallel universes. n/t

[malaise]

4. Very few people even care

That's old news to them.

[flashl]

7. That's true. Which makes one wonder who is the 'we' in political discussions. n/t

[katmondoo]

3. I went to a Casino once and found it incredibly boring

Sitting there and pulling a lever or whatever just got on my nerves. Also I wanted to keep my hard earned money and not give it to a machine.

[flashl]

6. From a distance, I have observed gambling addiction and it is not pretty.

States' increasing dependency on the gambling industry for survival is not a good sign.

[MonkeyFunk]

5. I'm sure the thousands of employees

are pleased to have jobs.

The coast is never going to recover without an economy and without jobs. It's actually good news that the casinos have come back. They provide jobs, drive a lot of the tourist economy, etc. etc.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[malaise]

9. And I bet you were deifying Bush and FEMA

who ignored the victims of the hurricane

[SammyWinstonJack]

15. You join DU and post that crap?

:eyes: What was bu$h doing while NOLA was flooding? He was partying with McCain. See how that works?

[NOLALady]

21. Ray Nagin was the lesser of the evils.

I don't know enough about the Bill Jefferson fiasco to comment. There's the MSM news about the situation and then there's the "underground" news which is totally different.

The people affected by Katrina are trying to recover and rebuild their lives one day at a time. Hopefully, most will succeed with or without your sympathy.

[fasttense]

10. You are certainly mouthing the corporate media mantra

They have taught you well little grasshopper.

Never mind that people don't have houses, never mind that Casino jobs pay a whole lot less (mostly waitress and bartender jobs) than a good factory job. Never mind that illegal immigrant labor (frequently unpaid) was used to build those Casinos. Never mind that hospitals and emergency rooms are barely limping along. Never mind that their are barely any schools to send the children to. But it is good that they have those McJobs so they get to take their pay to their homes in boxes under the overpass.

[MonkeyFunk]

11. NO need to be patronizing

Explain to me how an economy is rebuilt without corporations providing jobs.


I know it's fashionable to want to eliminate all corporations here, but it's a really stupid, short-sighted view.

Do you really think the people of the gulf coast will be better off without jobs?

[RC]

16. The economy is rebuilt by using manufacturing jobs.

Not by waitressing, janitorial, burger flipping minimum or less than minimum wage jobs.
Casino will do very little without housing replacement, infrastructure replacement, i.e., working water and sewer. The big money profits go to the absentee owners, not the local employees.
Sorry casinos aren't helping much to rebuild New Orleans.

I am getting very tired of people pushing "Jobs" as if any job is good enough and if not get a second or a third one. These jobs need to pay a living wage. Casino jobs are mostly lacking in that respect.

[MonkeyFunk]

17. The casinos are not at fault for the lack

of manufacturing jobs.

The casinos employ thousands of people, and fuel a lot of the tourism industry. That's a good thing for the people of the Gulf Coast.

[midlife_mo_Jo]

19. Louisiana never had much of a manufacturing base to begin with

Rural areas. Farms. Normal small town jobs, a bit of tourist industry in New Orleans, and OIL.

Now that oil is dwindling, the standard of living is going to get even worse. Much worse.

[bighart]

18. source please

[bdamomma]

12. yea, fcuk the people and as long they are making money

nothing else matters.

[JackintheGreen]

13. It's like that scene from Robocop

where the head of OCP tells Boedicker that when the huge construction project in post-apocalyptic Detroit begins there will be 2 million workers with 'spare' money seeking drugs, prostitutes, gambling, etc. While Detroit is in ruins, Boedicker and OCP stand to make bazillions.

And the critics thought that movie wasn't prescient. Morans!

[flashl]

14. The Robocop teevee series should be required viewing. n/t

[juno jones]

20. Another step in the disneyfication of NO

Those Louisianans had better be happy to have marginal jobs cleaning the toilets and mopping the puke of the richer and better who flock here for mindless 'fun'. :sarcasm: So many here decrying Mr Reagan and his legacy, yet so happy with the service/servant economy that he facilitated.

Reccing just to be a contrary pain in the ass. You wanna know about service work, you wanna know about the trickle-down economy? I'll give ya an earful. New Orleans deserves better, hell, we all deserve better. Or perhaps only people who have lived in a 30 ft Airstream can commiserate....