A day before the opening of the $240 million Wind Creek casino and hotel, workers were still struggling to get it all done on time. The casino and resort section has already opened since January 6, and the hotel section is scheduled to open until the end of January in time for the grand opening on January 31.
According to a survey, about 8.8 million visitors from Florida and Alabama visited Mississippi casinos in 2007 alone. For one reason or another, this seemed like the ideal time to open a new casino. The achievements so far have been so remarkable that tribal councilman David Geman, who voted against borrowing $150 million to build a casino, now sees promise in it. He said the tribe is even predicting that it may be able to pay off its debt in a short period of three years, unlike the five years initially expected.
The struggling economy doesn't seem to hurt gaming revenues much. Part of this success is that it has a great location to attract gamers from many surrounding areas, such as Mobile and Pensacola.
On the other hand, the Mississippi Choctaw Indians Band recently announced that it will reduce operations and increase jobs by at least 500 people at the Golden Moon Hotel and Casino near Philadelphia. Wind Creek Casino has 1,600 electronic bingo games that are very similar to slot machines, but there is still a shortage of class III games, including poker, blackjack and roulette. According to tribal chairman Buford Rollin, the reason they are only Class II casinos is because of local laws. He claims the governor recently visited the hotel and admired it, but the game issue was not discussed. All it takes to have a Class III game in a casino is an agreement or contract with the governor, and Rollin hopes something can be worked out in the near future.
According to PCI officials, the main difference between an electronic bingo machine and a slot machine is that the slot machine is independent, with players competing against the machine in a chance game. Bingo will be a player who competes with computers in a chance game because bingo machines are connected in groups, but legal explanations remain controversial.