Isaac: Flood waters hit Beau Rivage

First, the good news: Since thousands of people are being adversely affected by Hurricane Isaac, still gathering strength, one of them is Donald Trump. The bloated bloviator has been promising another of his shocking revelations — too shocking to be revealed! — but might be bumped from precious TV time by the furies of the storm. With characteristic Trump imbecility, The Donald was already in Florida, then flew to New York City, where he now finds himself stranded, the poor dear. However, this didn’t prevent him from loosing a hurricane of protectionist nonsense. What a joke.

Turning from buffoonery to the blasts of Isaac, four more Louisiana casinos are calling it a day. Boyd Gaming and Penn National Gaming joined the flotilla of operators who have shut down. Boyd’s Treasure Chest riverboat and Peninsula Gaming‘s Amelia Belle both went dark at midnight, and Hollywood Casino Baton Rouge followed suit in the wee hours of this morning. One racino, Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, has also been shuttered for the time being. (It will be interesting to see if storm damage to Peninsula’s Louisiana assets throws a monkey wrench into Boyd’s acquisitions plans — or price.)

Unlike their Pelican State counterparts, casinos in Mississippi were relatively slow to react to Isaac’s approach. As of late yesterday, Penn’s Hollywood Casino Bay St. Louis was only the second to cease operations. At the same time, Isle of Capri Casinos was still twiddling its thumbs and “monitoring conditions” at its Biloxi casino. Since Tilman Fertitta is paying only $45 million to obtain the property and is planning to take a wrecking ball to much of it, Isaac might spare him the trouble.

The Mississippi Gaming Commission, after an inexplicable delay, finally got off its duff this morning and directed all Gulf Coast casinos to shutter their operations. As of this writing, they should have been closed two-and-a-half hours now, leaving casino employees a few precious hours to secure all cash and chips, and batten down the hatches. Neither Boyd’s Palace Casino (left) nor MGM Resorts International‘s Beau Rivage waited for state edict when they saw storm-driven waters backing up into their parking areas around 8 a.m., CST. It’s certainly a piquant turn of events, with operators generally showing due diligence while the states’ response time lags. Let’s hope that isn’t a harbinger of worse things to come.