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GULFPORT, Miss.-Gulf Coast casinos rebuilding in the wake of Hurricane Katrina may rise from the rubble in safer locations if a change in Mississippi law allows them to move to higher ground.
The hurricane's impact was particularly harsh on casinos in the Mississippi cities of Gulfport and Biloxi. Some of the complexes, built as barges on the Gulf of Mexico, were lifted by Katrina's powerful storm surge and deposited blocks away from their original moorings. Others, built on pilings driven through the water, suffered less damage.
Where nature did not destroy some of the Mississippi casinos, man was required to finish the job. Harrah's Entertainment Inc.'s Grand Casino in Gulfport was moved by the Katrina's storm surge onto Hwy. 190, where a demolition team last week rigged explosives to the property and blew it apart to begin clearing the roadway.
In neighboring Louisiana, casinos built on waterways were not as hard hit as those in Mississippi, although some were damaged.
In the wake of the Gulf Coast catastrophe, momentum is building to change the Mississippi law that has left the state's coastline and riverbanks dotted with casinos. The legislation was passed in 1990 with the requirement that casinos be located over water as way to control their spread in the state and appease opponents of gambling.
Land-based casinos would have fared much better during Katrina, experts pointed out.