The mayor of a gulf coast city in Mississippi credits legalised gambling with transforming the area from a sleepy tourist town to the "Cinderella success story" of the US.

Hamilton Mayor Lawson Mapp recently visited Biloxi, Mississippi on a fact-finding mission to investigate gaming. Mr. Mapp's visit was featured on a US gaming website Gamblingmagazine.com.

Mr. Mapp said gambling could give new life to Hamilton's ageing waterfront and he said Government was considering legalising gambling this summer. spoke with residents in Biloxi to see what the effects of gambling has been on the community since it was introduced in 1992.

In his speech to the Mississippi Gaming Association on the tenth anniversary of gambling in the state, Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway said gambling has helped reduce property tax and has brought millions of tourists to the gulf state to enjoy not only casinos but world-class golf courses, beaches and game fishing tournaments. Mayor Holloway says the city now enjoys between 11 million and 25 million visitors a year.

Linda Hornsby, chairman of the Biloxi Mississippi Hotel and Motel Association, echoed his statements and says since gambling was introduced thousands of people have benefited from jobs. She says independent hotel owners have enjoyed a bustling business. Biloxi is now ranked among the top three gambling destinations in the US after Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

Mrs. Hornsby said casino gambling has not contributed to higher than average crime rates and that visitors will find a lot of other things to do besides gambling.

"We're fortunate that we have a lot of other things like a 26-mile beach and beautiful golf courses. Gambling came as an enhancement to what was already in the area, it gave people like older retirees with expendable income who can't always get out and play golf something to do."

Mrs. Hornsby said live entertainment like cabaret shows and music shows attract an older clientele to the city and also provide jobs for local people.

In 1992 there were 6,500 hotel rooms in the gulf coast city, and today there are approximately 18,000 hotel rooms. The Biloxi website advertises "great treasures in store for visitors who enjoy Las Vegas style gaming ? with 12 casinos now on the Coast ? and more to come. Open 24 hours, seven days a week, these casinos offer high limits, liberal rules and games that include craps, blackjack, mini-baccarat, all kinds of poker, roulette and slots. "Even if you are a novice or a non-gambler, you will find lots of live entertainment, sumptuous buffets, elegant restaurants and some entertainment centres for youngsters at these glitzy pleasure palaces" reads the website.

Although citizens in Biloxi enjoy a better lifestyle than residents in other parts of the state, an article in yesterday's edition of the Biloxi Sun Herald reports that gamblers are often the victims of casino theft. Recently women who were sitting at slot machines were so caught up in the game that they do not notice their purses were snatched right from under their very noses.

Timothy Boone, the casino reporter at the Sun Herald says violent crime rates and homicides in the city have not gone up since the University of Nevada did a study in the impacts of gambling in 2001. Gambling-related crimes such as purse snatching, car burglary and prostitution have increased. Chapters of the addiction group Gamblers Anonymous in Biloxi have also grown to more than a dozen with the typical participant an older lady who has gambled away her pension cheque.

"That is a concern for the community, people who gamble tend to be older, in their 50s with the kids out of the house with some money and free time for gambling," he said. A gambling hotline in Biloxi regularly dispenses advice to people who have tried their luck one too many times, but several hotels are expanding their hotel rooms to meet the demand.

City public affairs officer Vincent Creel said the community is enjoying a stable tourism industry. "Nostradamus couldn't have predicted what we've seen happen to our community," he said. "In the beginning we estimated three riverboat casinos employing about 3,000 people; now we have ten resort casinos enjoying directly 17,000 people," he said.

Mr. Creel told that he could not speak about the effect of gambling for other communities, particularly small communities like Bermuda, but he said gambling had elevated the city "to another level".

In Mississippi out of the 12 percent gambling tax on casinos, the state gets eight percent and the local Governments where the casinos are located get four percent.