Mississippi legalized dockside casino gambling in 1990, and the Gulf Coast transformed almost overnight. The catch was that casinos had to float — they were technically vessels on navigable water, built on barges in the back bays and harbors of Biloxi and Gulfport. By 2005, gaming revenue on the Mississippi coast rivaled Atlantic City. Then Katrina pushed the casino barges inland — one landed on top of a Holiday Inn. The state legislature responded by allowing casinos to build on land within 800 feet of the waterline. The result is the beachfront you see today: a row of massive resort casinos that replaced the modest motels and seafood joints that Camille and Katrina had already erased. The casinos are the coast's largest employers and its most visible architecture. Whether that trade was worth it depends on who you ask — but there is no understanding the modern Mississippi Gulf Coast without understanding that gambling money rebuilt it.