With promises of support and words of encouragement, Mayor Andrew “FoFo” Gilich this morning congratulated the City of D’Iberville on the opening of the Scarlet Pearl Casino Resort.
“Our friends in D’Iberville have worked so hard for so long for this day, and we share in their excitement about the potential of Scarlet Pearl not only for their city, but for Biloxi and the rest of the Mississippi Gulf Coast,” Gilich said. The new casino resort had a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11 a.m.
“Our gaming market re-established its vitality this year and the addition of a quality resort like Scarlet Pearl should only help us continue the momentum,” Gilich said, with Biloxi’s eight casinos generating $725 million in gross gaming revenue since January, a 4 percent increase over the same time frame in 2014.
The Biloxi mayor noted Biloxi and D’Iberville share a community spirit that will forever bind the two cities: “We share the same culture and basically the same geography. We are each distinct in some ways, but so alike in many others.”
Gilich’s congratulatory comments follow up a meeting months ago, with the opening of Scarlet Pearl approaching, where Biloxi formally signed a mutual aid agreement to provide support, if needed, to the D’Iberville Fire Department.
Scarlet Pearl is the 12th casino in operation across the Coast, joining Biloxi’s eight and others in Gulfport, Bay St. Louis and Hancock County. It is the first casino to open since Margaritaville closed a year ago.
“Margaritaville was a lesson for everyone associated with the gaming industry,” Gilich said. “It showed us that stand-alone, smaller casinos lacking amenities aren’t able to compete with established resorts. Scarlet Pearl follows the model that has proven successful in this market and we appreciate its potential to expand the market.”
See the lineup of Mississippi Gulf Coast casinos
