BY MARY PEREZ

GULFPORT — Mississippi dropped from the third-largest to the sixth-largest casino market in the country over the last 10 years, Allen Godfrey, executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission said Thursday, but survived hurricanes, floods and competition and emerged as still a well-respected and strong casino market.

Godfrey delivered his State of the Casinos report during the Gaming Commission’s January meeting at Island View Casino Resort.

South Mississippi was "the shining star" in 2014, he said, and the only area of the state where casino revenue was up from 2013.

The state’s casinos finished the year with a 3 percent revenue decline, dropping to $2.07 billion from $2.14 billion in 2013.

The Coast casinos posted a 1 percent increase to $1.08 billion from $1.07 billion in 2013.

The bright spots in the year came from the reinvestment by Coast casinos in 2014, Godfrey said. The Gaming Commission toured the $58 million restoration of the Island View hotel tower south of U.S. 90, which will get its public debut during a ribbon cutting April 29.

The south tower at Island View will be the first major casino amenity to open in South Mississippi in 2015, with 404 rooms, 56 suites and five new restaurants in the tower and at the existing Island View Casino.

The resort also will have a saltwater pool with direct access to the beach, a fitness center, salon and spa, gift shop, 10,000 square feet of meeting space and views from every room of the water and the city.

Godfrey said Hard Rock Casino Biloxi opened its new hotel tower in 2014, Silver Slipper started construction of a hotel and Golden Nugget completed its total renovation.

These major projects, along with the minor league baseball stadium construction in Biloxi, the lazy river attraction at Hollywood Casino Bay St. Louis and major renovations at most of the other Coast casinos, are needed to bring more visitors, he said.

A graphic of the visitor counts to the state’s casinos show a decline since before Hurricane Katrina and the national recession. "It has been drastic," Godfrey said, but the way visitors were counted years ago was unreliable.

The report showed that casinos in the north river region of the state have been hard-hit by competition. What once was the third-largest market in the country has dropped in annual revenue to under $700 million, he said, "but they’re still a strong gaming market."

Godfrey said other states are facing the same issues and Mississippi should look to see what they have done right and wrong.

"Let’s see if we can’t do more things right. I think we need more attractions," he said. "The additional slot machines are not needed until there are more visitors coming here."

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