Well, not quite. But with the Southern Gaming Summit convening today in Biloxi, it’s as good a moment as any to look back on the quaint beginnings of what’s now a kind of American Riviera. Eleven casinos, 5,598 hotel rooms, 11,335 employees and $323 million in tax payments later, it’s pretty remarkable to think that it all grew out of two dinky, little riverboats — Bernie Goldstein‘s Diamond Lady and Emerald Lady — in the space of two decades and despite Hurricane Katrina, which obliterated or disabled every casino in town except Imperial Palace (now owned by Boyd Gaming) and dealt the industry a multi-year setback. Well played, Biloxi.
Congratulations to industry veteran Anthony Rodio, who ascends to the direction of Carl Icahn‘s entire Tropicana Entertainment casino portfolio (i.e., the remnants of Columbia Sussex), replacing caretaker CEO Daniel Ninivaggi. Given Rodio’s expanded workload, the task of butting heads with Unite-Here at the Tropicana Atlantic City will apparently soon devolve to someone else, an unlucky soul as yet unnamed.
