Margaritaville Casino Opening Brings Excitement To Mississippi

Jimmy Buffett is no stranger to throwing a party. Go to any Buffett concert and it can be seen that his following knows how to have a good time. The tailgating is often a key to the Buffett concert parties, and today thousands of Mississippi residents will get to experience the festivities surrounding Parrot Heads.

Buffett is in Mississippi for the grand opening of his Margaritaville casino in the Gulf Coast state. Buffett has recently started to lend his name to gaming halls around the US. The Mississippi gaming establishment will be the latest of those facilities when it opens to customers for the first time at 5PM.

The 5PM opening is part of the marketing campaign of the casino. Buffett has famously sung It's Five O'clock Somewhere at his concerts, and it is a staple that will surely be heard over the speakers at the Mississippi casino for years to come. The opening of the casino has residents of the state excited.

"This is going to be awesome," said Henry Graber, a longtime Mississippi resident. "Jimmy is my favorite musician, I go to all his concerts, so I can't wait to see what a casino themed after his Margaritaville brand will look like. I'm stoked, and I can't wait for 5:00."

Residents are not the only people excited about the new casino. Executives believe that Buffet's massive following will help drive revenue at the casino, and that the allure of such a recognizable name will bring customers that aren't even necessarily Buffett fans.

"The brand of Margaritaville is extremely powerful," said John Hairston, a member of the Mississippi Gaming Commission. "The power of that brand deserved the risk we took by allowing a casino on the small side."

The casino is located in Biloxi, a well-established area for casino gambling. The casino will bring thousands of new jobs to a region that was devastated in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, and then again in 2008 by the economic recession. The region has started to recover, and the small Margaritaville casino is another step in the road to recovery.

"There is, I think, some growth that we can capture," said Danny Davila, one of the investors in the Margaritaville casino. "We don't really need a lot to be an economic success from our standpoint."

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