Biloxi casinos report another record-setting gross

Biloxi’s seven casino resorts generated $84.6 million in gross gaming revenue in April, the largest April in the history of gaming in Biloxi. The figure represents a 42 percent increase over April 2006 and a 10 percent increase over April 2005, when nine casino resorts were operating in pre-Katrina Biloxi.

April’s figures also mean that seven of the last eight months have been record-setting months for the Biloxi casino resort market.

The city tracks gaming revenue on a calendar month basis, with monthly gross gaming revenue figures for the previous month reported on the 15th of each month. The monthly gross gaming revenue figure, which accounts for the money casinos won in a given month, is taxed at a rate of 12 percent. Of that 12 percent tax, 8 percent goes to the state of Mississippi, and 4 percent is shared by local city and county governments and local public school systems.

Biloxi’s share – about $20 million in FY 2005 — accounts for more than a third of the city’s annual operating budget. Other city revenue streams: sales tax (about 24 percent of the budget) and property taxes (about 20 percent of the budget).

To see the calendar month gross-gaming revenue figures for the Biloxi market, click here.

To see Mayor A.J. Holloway’s comments on the Biloxi market, as delivered in his remarks last week to the Southern Gaming Summit, click here.