Natchez &8212; Mississippi&8217;s devastated Coast casino industry is well on the road to a recovery jackpot, the state&8217;s top gaming chief said this week.

Larry Gregory, executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission, told members of the Natchez Rotary Club that even he is amazed at the speed and quality of the rebuilding effort after Hurricane Katrina.

&8220;August 29 was a tragic day for this state but particularly for the gaming industry,&8221; Gregory said. &8220;(It) just completely wiped out the Gulf Coast and the gaming industry.&8221;

Gregory was one of the first state officials to tour the coast by helicopter on the day after the storm.

&8220;That first flight Tuesday morning was just unbelievable,&8221; he said. &8220;I remember saying, &8216;This industry will just never recover.&8217;

&8220;We&8217;d lost almost 17,000 jobs overnight. We were losing half a million dollars each day (in taxes),&8221; he said.

Gregory and other state leaders rushed to Las Vegas and met with executives from some of the large gaming corporations trying to make sure they&8217;d rebuild what had become a vital part of the state&8217;s economic base.

&8220;They wanted to come back, but there was one caveat. They said, &8216;We cannot put the liability onto our stockholders.&8217;&8221;

Quick work by state lawmakers modified the laws regulating the location of casino gaming on the Gulf Coast. Prior to the storm casinos had to be floating, dockside casinos &8212; fancily decorated barges, essentially.

Katrina&8217;s fierce winds whipped up an amazing storm surge that ripped the barges from their moorings and tossed them inland causing great destruction.

In October 2005, the Mississippi Legislature began allowing coast casinos to build permanent fixtures on land as far as 800 feet from the water&8217;s edge.

&8220;The days of the barges are gone,&8221; Gregory said, adding that the casinos that are rebuilding are improving their infrastructure since the buildings will likely be more permanent.

And the rebuilding is well on its way.

&8220;We opened up three casinos in December. No one had any earthly idea of the number of people who would show up,&8221; Gregory said. &8220;I could not fathom the number of people visiting the Coast.

&8220;It didn&8217;t slow down in December. It didn&8217;t slow down in January and it didn&8217;t slow down in February,&8221; he said.

In the Biloxi market, last month&8217;s gross gaming revenues were already at 70 percent of their pre-Katrina levels, Gregory said.

&8220;We&8217;re not looking at the same product that was there before,&8221; he said. &8220;It&8217;s an economic gold mine down there.&8221;