National News

It can be cresting with whitecaps, glistening as smooth as cobalt-blue glass or changing hues like a chameleon.

Diane Fulton watches the moods of the water from the sales stand at Cat Island Adventures, a new business that provides trips from the Long Beach harbor.

“We went out there on the island a couple of weeks after the storm,” she said. “Everything was brown. I thought how in the world is this business ever going to make it? Now, all the green is coming back.”

On this Friday afternoon, Cat Island Excursions had sold all spots for its afternoon trips to charter groups. There’s starfish on the island, sea oats going to seed on the beach and new sprigs shooting from the live oaks along the highway. Fulton said she’s excited about the future.

“Long Beach just voted (for) land-based casino gaming,” she said. “I think that’s going to add a lot to our city. I think it’s going to help every business in Long Beach.”

With beaches, golf courses and deep-sea fishing, the Coast — even with all the destruction from Hurricane Katrina — has attractions other areas can only wish for. The casinos are more than just lagniappe. They have a history here — from the story of Caprice, the illicit gambling island of the 1920s that dissipated in the waves — and a future, as evidenced by the mega-resorts taking shape on shore today.

Gamblers have shown their loyalty to the Coast, and the casino industry has taken notice. Billions of dollars are being invested from Hancock County to D’Iberville. Biloxi is the hub of it all.

The first casinos to reopen, all in Biloxi, took back 54 percent of their pre-Katrina market share during their first full month of operation. Three casinos in January 2006 accounted for more than half the money made by 12 casinos in January 2005.

The numbers have held steady, with the market share reaching 60 percent by midsummer. This month’s reopening of Grand Casino Biloxi and Beau Rivage should put the market closer to pre-Katrina levels.

Longer term, no one can really say how high the numbers will go with casinos finally being allowed to come out of the water.