From: ijames@helix.nih.gov (Carl Ijames)
Subject: Trip report - MS Gulf coast
Followup-To: rec.gambling
Organization: NIH
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1993 00:53:03 GMT

Hi y'all:

Just returned from Christmas vacation with my folks in Pascagoula, MS
(can't you tell from my accent?) and thought you might like a brief report
on the dockside gambling which has sprung up in the last few months. 
Casino gambling is now legal at dockside.  There are three casinos in
Biloxi (about half way between New Orleans and Mobile) and one more in Bay
St. Louis, maybe an hour from New Orleans.  I got to escort my Mom and
sister on a tour of the three in BIloxi.  They all offer poker (7 stud and
hold-em for sure, maybe others), video poker, slot machines, craps, and
blackjack.  The President was the smallest and least liked, the Biloxi
Belle (may have been the Casino Belle) was next, and the biggest and best
was the Isle of Capri, at the foot of the Biloxi Bay bridge on Highway 90. 
The Capri even has a no-smoking section, with at least a couple craps and
blackjack tables along with slots.  Rules seemed pretty uniform, but I was
told that the Capri has the best slot payouts.  Craps was mostly single
odds, with a few tables at the Belle advertising double odds, and some at
the Capri with triple odds.  The video poker machines were mainly Joker's
wild progressive machines (jackpot was $1,300 at the time), but there were
some non-progressive machines too.  These were two pair or better to win,
but I did find a couple of jacks or better machines.  As I recall, payouts
were 7/5 flush/boat, but I didn't take notes and it has been almost two
weeks (yeah, yeah, I even procastinate my rec.gambling posting).  Lots of
dollar and quarter slots, and a few stands of nickel slots.

Blackjack, you ask?  Mostly 6 deck shoes, with $5, $10, and $25 minimums. 
I say mostly because I think I saw some 8 deckers, too.  I read much more
rec.gambling than I play, so I don't count and can't estimate remaining
numbers of decks in a shoe at a glance.  Rules:  stand on all 17, resplit
pairs to total of four hands, double after split, double on any two cards,
okay to split aces (but you only get one card per ace - is that normal?). 
Blackjacks pay 3:2 and insurance 2:1, like normal.  I don't know about
surrender.  I watched one guy play for almost an hour, and he varied his
bet between $10 and $25 at a $5 table.  Never shuffled up on, and no
attention that I could see.  I don't know if he was counting or not but he
tended to have big bets out when he got blackjack.  I watched him start
with one 3 inch pile of $5 chips and finish with that pile and a second
with about $175 in $25 chips.  There were also doubledeck tables, $25
minimum, with the same rules.  Only a few of these were busy, and no one
was changing their bets, so I can't comment on heat, except that there were
more pit people standing close to these tables.  Penetration was about 75
percent on the shoes and the doubledeck.  I did watch one player have a lot
of trouble trying to insert the cut card into a freshly shuffled double
deck, until he put it where the dealer obviously wanted, where it slid
right in.  Could be I am just slightly paranoid after reading here for so
long, or maybe he was doing it on purpose.  The players didn't do obviously
worse that time compared to previous or later shuffles.  There were at
least 30 bj tables at the Capri, maybe 8 of them $25 doubledeck ones.

I understand that the casinos have been open since about October, 1992. 
They draw people down from all over the southeast, from Memphis to
Jacksonville.  At least three more are planned and waiting on permits from
the Gambling Commission.  I really don't know how many the area can
support, but players can only benefit in the short term as competition
heats up.  Even without the casinos, the Gulf coast is a beautiful vacation
spot (native pride showing through).  The Capri offers a buffet ($5.95 for
a great lunch), and the others have or will have something similar shortly.
 Area restaurants are miffed that the casinos undercut their prices, and I
was told at two local nightclubs that their business has been substantially
cut into by the casinos.  Someone told me that the New Orleans casino
project had been awarded to someone other than Ceasars.  They were
predicting a 1994 opening.  This will clearly hurt the Mississippi casinos,
but maybe by then they will have grown enough to keep going.

Enough for now.  Will update this after next Christmas, since I seem to
only get home once a year.  Now back to our regularly scheduled Uston APC
vs. Red 7 debate ...

Carl Ijames     ijames@helix.nih.gov