Pay ends for casino workers
Posted on Thursday, December 8, 2005
JACKSON, Miss. — Thousands of employees of Gulf Coast casinos are losing insurance benefits and paychecks as the companies that own hurricane-devastated gambling houses end worker assistance to concentrate on rebuilding.
A dozen casinos that once lined Mississippi’s Gulf Coast remained closed, as do two in New Orleans. Most of the Mississippi casinos were wrecked Aug. 29 by Katrina’s powerful winds and wall of storm surge.
Nearly all the owners agreed to continue paying workers on a temporary basis, but that is ending or, in some cases, has already stopped.
Larry Gregory, executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission, said Wednesday that nearly 14, 000 casino employees remain out of gambling-related jobs, though some have left the area for other jobs. Mississippi coast casinos employed 16, 000 people before Katrina.
Sherry O’Brien, 41, a mother of two who was a blackjack dealer at Biloxi’s Beau Rivage resort, said she’s one of the fortunate ones who’s stayed and found a new job, at a storage company. But she took a substantially 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. 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.
About 1, 000 former employees have found work elsewhere in the company or with contractors rebuilding the casino, MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman said.
Las Vegas-based Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. paid its 8, 000 employees who worked 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.
The company has promised to continue to pay for the benefits of 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.
“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.
Harrah’s executives have said it could be more than two years before its Grand Casino resorts in Gulfport and Biloxi, which were torn from their moorings and washed away, are replaced with permanent, shore-based structures. It’s unclear whether the company will even return to Gulfport.
Pinnacle Entertainment Inc., owner of destroyed Casino Magic Biloxi, paid about 1, 000 workers full salaries and benefits until the end of October, said Kim Townsend, the company’s marketing vice president.
“For the most part, most people have moved on,” Townsend said. “We’re moving forward with rebuilding in mind.”
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