page_title: President Casino Broadwater Resort
section_title: Casino era
hierarchical_section_title: President Casino Broadwater Resort / Casino era
caption_attribution_description: English: View from the President Casino Broadwater Resort, from the hotel portion towards the beach, marina, and casino portion
context_page_description: The President Casino Broadwater Resort was a combined casino and resort that was located in Biloxi, Mississippi. It was a fixture on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for over 60 years.
  Originally known as the Broadwater Beach Hotel and Broadwater Beach Resort, it opened in 1939 as a venue for the illegal but tacitly approved gambling that was flourishing along the coast. In the late 1950s and 1960s, the gambling stopped and the facility was renovated and re-purposed as a resort destination with a state-of-the-art marina and other amenities. In its heyday the Broadwater Beach Resort hosted movie stars, leading politicians, and top business figures as well as people on vacation. It became the Gulf Coast's flagship resort and its colorfully lit front sign was iconic.
  In 1992, President Casinos gained control of the facility, and after changing the name, added a casino riverboat and barge. The casino had a successful niche following among lower-end gamblers, but the problems of the parent company resulting in bankruptcy filings in the early 2000s. In 2005, new owners closed the resort and casino shortly before Hurricane Katrina destroyed them.
context_section_description: Entrepreneur John E. Connelly, founder of President Casinos, then gained control of the property, and the President Casino Broadwater Resort was opened aboard a riverboat docked at the Broadwater Resort Marina in August 1992.  It was the second casino to open on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, following the Isle of Capri Casino which opened two weeks earlier. In June 1995, President Casinos replaced the riverboat with the former Mississippi Gold Shore Casino barge.  The table games there were known for having lower limits than most other Biloxi casinos.  Major country music stars performed there on Wednesday through Saturday nights, and the hotel had 550 rooms available across two structures.  In 1997 and 1999, titles to the resort property and barge were formally transferred from Connelly to President Casinos.
  By the early 2000s, the President Casino Broadwater Resort sat on 260 acres (1.1 km²).  The powerboat-oriented Broadwater Resort Marina had 118 berths, and was regarded by one published guide as "one of the best full-service, luxurious marinas between Mobile and New Orleans."  The President Broadwater Golf Club offered a full-length 18-hole course.  The casino featured over 38,000 square feet (3,500 m²) of gambling with over 900 slot machines.  However, no work had been done on the old resort and its hotel, resulting in its declining in appearance to a run-down state.  The hotel capacity was down to 450 rooms and suites, and functioned mainly as a place for the casino barge customers to sleep briefly; furniture was piled up in corridors, the hotel main floor entertainment rooms were empty, and weeds grew on the resort's tennis courts.  Nevertheless, the resort still made reference to its pre-casino past, calling itself "one of the last great Southern resorts on the Mississippi Gulf Coast."
  The casino itself found a niche market among local gamblers and was a reliable earner.  President Casinos was saddled with corporate debt, however, and a planned new $2 billion resort at the site, to be called Destination Broadwater, never materialized.  In April 2001, the President Broadwater Hotel, which represented the non-casino operations, filed for bankruptcy.  President Casinos filed for bankruptcy in June 2002, and the Broadwater casino the following month, but operation of the President Casino Broadwater Resort continued.
caption: From the hotel portion, the resort's grounds, beach, marina, and casino could be seen, in a 2002 view.
exif: {}