Hard Rock could raise another bar - 2004-02-08
The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is officially scheduled to start construction Tuesday in the first groundbreaking ceremony for a new Coast casino resort since 1996.

The Hard Rock, which will open by September 2005, will most likely not change the Coast casino market overnight, like its soon-to-be next door neighbor Beau Rivage did.

Beau Rivage was significant because it was the first time Steve Wynn, who transformed Las Vegas during the 1990s, entered the South Mississippi casino market. Wynn's $650 million gamble showed Wall Street and other casino operators that Mississippi was a place worth investing in.
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Specialty chips part of the game - 2004-02-08
Tens of thousands of colorful casino chips, representing every period of gambling and every corner of the globe, were exhibited at Copa Casino on Saturday afternoon.

The Deep South Chip Collectors Club held its second yearly meeting at the casino, giving about 24 people from across the United States a chance to show off their check collections and sell and swap chips.

John Mayercik of Ocean Springs is president of the Deep South club, which has 75 members. Like most collectors, Mayercik said he got started collecting chips by accident. He had a few chips left over from a gambling junket to Atlantic City in the late 1970s that got tossed in a drawer.
Read the full story at Biloxi Sun Herald