Rick Carter's Unlikely Rise To The Top Of The Gulf Coast Gaming Industry

Benzinga recently had the chance to sit down with Rick Carter, the co-founder of the Island View Casino Resort in Gulfport, Mississippi. Carter’s career as a business owner has taken lots of twists and turns, and he shared some of his biggest failures, his greatest challenges and the most important lessons he has learned in his climb to the top of the Mississippi Gulf Coast gaming industry.

Bad Timing

"Oil got to $19 per barrel I think, the day I opened up my restaurant," Carter told Benzinga. "There was more cars pulling U-Haul trailers driving past my restaurant leaving town than any other type of car on the road!"

Related Link: The Single Biggest Threat To The U.S. Casino Industry

Entering The Casino Business

After the restaurant business didn’t end up taking off as anticipated, Carter and childhood friend Terry Green got to talking one day about a gambling boat that was based in Biloxi, Mississippi, just a few miles from where they both grew up in Gulfport. After some preliminary research, they decided they would get their hands on an even bigger casino boat and base it out of Gulfport, which had a larger population than Biloxi.

By the time 2005 came around, Carter and Green’s boat, the Copa, was making more than $1 million in profit per year.

Overcoming Adversity

While many inside the U.S. gaming industry would name the Financial Crisis as the biggest threat to the industry in recent decades, the Gulf Coast casino industry went through an experience that makes the Financial Crisis seem like a walk in the park: Hurricane Katrina. Although much of the media attention surrounding Katrina focused on New Orleans, the Mississippi coast was hit just as hard.

When the storm waters finally receded, the Copa was sitting in the parking lot of the neighboring Grand Casino Gulfport, resting against the parking garage. Despite the devastation, Carter and Green attempted to take the lemons and make lemonade. When Harrah’s decided it would not rebuild the Grand Casino, Carter and Green stepped in and purchased the property from Harrah’s, and the Island View Casino was born.

Related Link: Macau Turnaround Could Have Casino Stocks On Track

Advice

Benzinga asked Carter what he wishes he would have known when he first started in the casino business back in 1989. He chuckled as he emphasized the importance of fully understanding a business before getting started. “I remember calling [my partner] one day and I said, ‘Nobody on this boat can tell us how many chips we got or how much money we got.’ There was not even surveillance on the boat!” Carter recalled.

Carter also told Benzinga that the best piece of advice he could give to someone starting his or her first business is to make sure to hire the right people. “We’ve hired so many people over the years that talked the talk, but they couldn’t walk the walk... The staff I’ve got now is like one big family down here. Everybody looks after everybody else.”

Looking To The Future

Despite the success that Carter has achieved throughout his career in the gaming industry, he and the Island View team are far from complacent. The resort recently opened a brand new $58 million, 405-room beach tower in April of this year, increasing the resort’s total room capacity by over 70 percent.