Jackson, Miss – Thousands of casino employees on the Gulf Coast are losing insurance benefits and salaries as the companies end post-Katrina assistance to concentrate on rebuilding gambling houses hammered by the hurricane.
Two New Orleans casinos remain closed, as do 12 casinos that once dotted Mississippi’s Gulf Coast. Most of those were wrecked by the Aug. 29 storm’s powerful winds and wall of storm surge.
Nearly all the companies agreed to continue paying workers on a temporary basis, but that’s ending or has already stopped.
Larry Gregory, executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission, said Wednesday nearly 14,000 casino employees remain out of gambling-related jobs. Mississippi coast casinos employed 16,000 people before Katrina.
“I understand a lot of those people left the coast for other jobs,” he said. “A lot of the people have gone to Las Vegas.”
Sherry O’Brien, a former blackjack dealer at Biloxi’s Beau Rivage resort and a 41-year-old mother of two, said she’s one of the fortunate ones. She’s found a new job at a storage company, though she took a lower salary simply for the benefits.
“It’s very difficult,” O’Brien said. “I went from making a nice salary to making about a third of what I made. I’ll have to go into my savings, and things are just extremely different.”
MGM Mirage Inc., which owns Beau Rivage, paid its 3,100 employees and provided insurance for three months after Katrina gutted the lower floors of the beachfront casino and hotel. But that ended Tuesday.
The casino, which had been the coast’s showcase gambling resort, sent out letters last week informing employees they would not likely return to work until next year on the anniversary of Katrina, O’Brien said
Las Vegas-based Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. paid its 8,000 employees at casinos in Biloxi, Gulfport and New Orleans full pay and benefits until Nov. 26, said Jan Jones, senior vice president for governmental relations and communications.
“There comes a point … when you need to make some kind of decision about what’s the right thing to do and take into consideration what’s best for shareholders,” Jones said.
The company has promised to continue to pay benefits for the 2,600 employees of Harrah’s New Orleans, which survived intact, until the first workers are called back sometime after March 1.
Biloxi and Gulfport employees will receive benefits until the end of the year, Jones said.
