Just a month after Hurricane Katrina smashed Mississippi's casino gambling boats, the state Legislature opened a special session Tuesday devoted to how and whether to salvage an industry that has been central to the economy of the Gulf Coast.
Gov. Haley Barbour instantly generated controversy by proposing that casinos, previously restricted to boats moored along the state's southern coast or the Mississippi River, be allowed to move as much as 1,500 feet inland.
But many of the state's religious leaders, who have opposed casino gambling from the beginning, were trying to seize the moment to shut down the casinos. "It is unfortunate that with all the human needs in Mississippi right now, the gambling-political complex has chosen this unfortunate time to try to expand its influence," said William Perkins, spokesman for the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board.
In Mississippi, which has among the nation's lowest tax rates for casinos, 12 percent of gambling revenues go to the government - 8 percent to the state and 4 percent to the county where the casino is. The casinos were projected to bring in $189 million to state tax coffers in the coming fiscal year, a number that has been steadily and rapidly rising since casinos first became legal in 1990.
NY Times
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