“Tourism is the lifeblood of Mississippi’s tri-county coastal region, but despite the indelible impact of COVID-19 on the industry, Coastal Mississippi continues to see successes and growth.” “This significant increase in visitation serves as an important benchmark for the progress of our recovery as a destination,” Conner said. Karen Conner, the director of marketing for tourism bureau Coastal Mississippi, said the region’s number of tourists is higher now than it has been in the last several years. The casinos’ recent spike is matched with an increase in tourists visiting the Gulf Coast. With half of the year still left, the casinos are on pace to have the highest total gross gaming revenue since they began operating in the 1990s. Mississippi casinos reported nearly $1.8 billion in gross revenue for all of 2020, which included the roughly two months they had to shut down because of the pandemic. The gaming revenue numbers do not account for the cost of doing business.
Gross gaming revenue - the amount of money players wager minus what they win - is similar to traditional businesses’ sales figures.
