\nJACKSON, Miss. (AP) \u2013 Biloxi\u2019s Margaritaville Casino & Restaurant will waste away by mid-September, with the casino saying it can\u2019t raise more money because the landlord won\u2019t renegotiate the lease.<\/p>\n
\tThe casino, barely more than two years old, announced Monday that it will close on or before Sept. 19, although it says it will pay its 371 employees through then.<\/p>\n
\tMargaritaville will be the second Mississippi casino to close this year, after Caesars Entertainment Corp. shuttered Harrah\u2019s Tunica Hotel & Casino in June, citing declining revenue and the company\u2019s heavy debt. Singer Jimmy Buffett licenses the name to Margaritaville, after his famous song, but doesn\u2019t share ownership.<\/p>\n
\tWhile gambling revenue in Tunica County has dived sharply, declines have been gentler on Mississippi\u2019s Gulf Coast. Mississippi Gaming Commission Executive Director Allen Godfrey said Monday that he doesn\u2019t think Margaritaville\u2019s closure indicates a crisis, citing construction of the Scarlet Pearl casino in D\u2019Iberville and investment by other casino owners.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI don\u2019t know this is going to say a lot negative about the Gulf Coast,\u201d Godfrey said.<\/p>\n
\tMargaritaville is one of the smallest of 12 Gulf Coast casinos, one of only three without a hotel. CEO Doug Shipley told reporters Monday that the lack of a hotel to anchor out-of-town gamblers, combined with an out-of-the-way location isolated from Biloxi\u2019s other casinos contributed to the property\u2019s losses.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe story here is without a hotel, we cannot operate in a competitive market,\u201d Shipley said.<\/p>\n
\tMargaritaville\u2019s owners announced plans to invest another $64 million to build a 250-room hotel and overhaul the casino. But attorney Michael Cavanaugh said the Sims family, whose Hattiesburg company owns the land under the casino, has refused to renegotiate. Cavanaugh wouldn\u2019t say whether Margaritaville was trying to get rent reduced. Lee Sims could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe best outcome would be that something could be worked out with them and one of the investor groups that we\u2019ve been talking to comes in and goes forward,\u201d Cavanaugh said.<\/p>\n
\tMississippi\u2019s Gaming Commission allowed Margaritaville, a $62 million project when it opened in May 2012, to be built without a hotel. Analysts questioned its small size, leading to higher investment requirements for new casinos.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe commission was concerned from Day 1, but found ourselves in a difficult situation given the operation satisfied regulations at that time,\u201d Commissioner John Hairston wrote in an email. \u201cWe began discussing a change in regulation requiring larger scale, amenities, and hotels shortly thereafter, culminating in the regulation put in place in 2014.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tCavanaugh said that the 40-investor ownership group doesn\u2019t plan to seek bankruptcy protection. Cavanaugh said Buffett\u2019s business had waived licensing fees for the last two years to help the casino.<\/p>\n
\tA Margaritaville casino in Bossier City, Louisiana, is owned separately.<\/p>\n
\tShipley said the Biloxi casino plans to operate normally through August. Cavanaugh said hours could be reduced or Margaritaville could close earlier if business drops sharply.<\/p>\n
Posted by:<\/strong> TommyC on July 23, 2014, 1:21 pm<\/p>\n Posted by:<\/strong> Dr Crapology on July 25, 2014, 12:27 pm<\/p>\n \tRose and Doc<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" JACKSON, Miss. (AP) \u2013 Biloxi\u2019s Margaritaville Casino & Restaurant will waste away by mid-September, with the casino saying it can\u2019t raise more money because the landlord won\u2019t renegotiate the lease. The casino, barely more than two years old, announced Monday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}