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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

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