Mississippi State Employee Brown Arrested At Casino

The Gulf Coast has been pelted with rain over the past several days and it has limited the number of gamblers that have attended casinos in the region. Butch Brown should have heeded the warning of the weather and stayed at home.

On Friday, Brown, the Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation, was arrested at the Beau Rivage Casino. Brown was hit with a misdemeanor charge of public intoxication, further connecting state employees to the gambling industry.

The arrest occurred at 3AM in the early hours of Friday. Brown was sleeping at a penny machine, according to a guard who woke Brown and asked him to leave the premises. Brown argued and said he wanted instead to go to his hotel room, and the guard placed him under citizens arrest.

"This is common at casinos where gamblers have a few drinks too many, then sit hour after hour at either a card table or a slot machine," said Gaming Analyst Steve Schwartz. "Then, the exhaustion just takes over and the gambler falls asleep. Security is usually able to control the situation without incident."

Whether or not Brown was actually playing the slot machine is up for debate. Brown has denied the gambling allegations, and a Beau Rivage spokesperson claims that the police should not have been called and that is was a misunderstanding.

Mississippi casinos have been among the many across the US that have had revenue declines in recent years. First, Hurricane Katrina ravaged the area, and more recently the economic recession has led to major customer loss. Atlantic City and Las Vegas, the two biggest casino gambling destinations in the US, have been hit the hardest by the economic problems in the country.

July 25, 2010
Posted By Terry Goodwin
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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