Mississippi casinos allowed to reopen after Hurricane Sally

After coast casinos shut down on Monday ahead of Hurricane Sally, the Mississippi Gaming Commission gave them the go-ahead to reopen Wednesday.

The casinos are now getting back on track after having to temporarily close due to the storm effects, WXXV reports.

"We had sufficient notice and we didn’t have to shut down till four o’clock, so the guests were being told that there was the potential for the shutdown," Scarlet Pearl Casino Resort CEO LuAnn Pappas said. 

As South Mississippi was spared the major effects from Sally, Pappas says the facility has come out of the last few days unscathed.”This facility was built after Katrina so we can withstand 150 mile per hour winds and it is 18 feet above sea level on the first floor.”

Gulfport resident James Anderson is one of many who returned to the gaming floor. He says the decision to temporarily close casinos was the right one. “Always need to go safety first and go ahead and close up for a day or two and if it moves out of the vicinity go ahead and reopen cause everybody’s ready to go, you know what I mean?”

With shutdowns as a result of storms and COVID-19 now in the books, Pappas hopes for smoother sailing for the rest of 2020. “I think all of us are in agreement that we want to get out of 2020 as fast as we can.”