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10 GLR 1 (2006)

handle is hein.journals/gmglwr10 and id is 1 raw text is: GAMING LAW REVIEW Volume 10, Number 1, 2006 ©Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Gambling and the Law® When Social Engineering Is a Disaster I. NELSON ROSE T HE MISSISSIPPi LEGISLATURE went into special session at the end of September 2005 to de- cide whether to allow casinos to be built on solid land. It took a hurricane destroying Mis- sissippi's entire Gulf of Mexico gaming indus- try, but the Legislature did finally vote that these casinos did not have to float. Gulfport and Biloxi's casino barges were some of the hardest hit victims of Hurricane Katrina. What were they thinking, to not only permit, but actually require casinos to float in a hurricane zone? Hurricane Camille, in 1969, had flung ocean freighters over Highway 90. The answer helps explain why the gaming industry is subjected everywhere to bizarre laws that are never imposed on any other busi- ness. It is important to note that like the New Or- leans levees that Presidents Bush and Clinton and Congress failed to reinforce, it was well known that the Gulf casinos could not survive a Category 4 hurricane. All the casinos were built to withstand a Category 3 hurricane. Beyond that, we are very nervous, Susan Barnes, general manager of Treasure Bay Casino, told the New York Times before the storm hit. I. Nelson Rose is a professor at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, Calif. His latest books are Gaming Law: Cases and Materials and Internet Gaming Law. Professor Rose may be reached at his Web site (http://www.Gambling AndTheLaw.com). © Copyright 2006, all rights reserved worldwide. Gam- bling and the Law® is a registered trademark of Profes- sor I. Nelson Rose, Whittier Law School, Costa Mesa, Calif. She had every right to be nervous. Hurricane Katrina was Category 5, the strongest storm possible, before it weakened slightly to Cate- gory 4. Still, with gusts of winds reaching 165 miles per hour, the casinos were bound to be damaged. Buildings built on land could be designed to withstand high winds, and many were, in- cluding the hotels connected to some floating casinos. But the storm also sent a roaring wall of water 30 feet high from the Gulf of Mexico smashing into the Mississippi coast. Every floating casino was severely damaged, many beyond repair. Casinos, including the floating parts of those casinos that were connected with buildings built on solid ground, were lifted and crashed inland. Others sank. Those casinos that had been securely built on pillars over the water didn't move. But they were hit with the full force of the wave, because there was no land to protect them from the sea. But it wasn't the shrieking wind and storm surge that destroyed so many casinos. It was bad laws. The Mississippi Legislature is not entirely to blame. Requiring casinos to float was a politi- cal compromise necessary to overcome stiff op- position to legalizing at all. Lotteries, racetracks, and casinos were fairly common during the 19th century. But Victorian morality and scandals brought a backlash. By 1909, all the state lotteries had been outlawed, almost all tracks were dark, and the only parts of the United States or Canada with legal casi- nos were the state of Nevada and the territo- ries of New Mexico and Arizona, which were 1

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