With heavy rains this past week in the mid west of the United States, the water level of the mighty Mississippi river has risen several inches. This raise in the level has caused problems for some of the rivers residences, River Boat casinos mainly.
Several states along the Mississippi allow for casino gambling on the river, but the casinos must be on the water. Instead of building ships for the casinos many were built on stationary platforms out over the water for stability.
In previous years come casinos in some areas have been hit with fast rising waters causing small floods, but this year the heavy rains over the last 2 weeks have caused many casinos to flood and most will be closed for as long as 2 weeks and maybe even longer depending on the damage done to the casinos by the flooding.
With casinos bring in as much as 20,000 a week in taxes to some small communities a 2 week closure is not a welcome event.
Many people are starting to wonder why, if casinos are going to remain legal they are still forced to build on the water and can not mover their casinos to higher and drier ground, where they will not have to deal with rising and falling water levels.
Once the water levels drop safety inspectors will be able to enter the casinos and then they will have a better understanding of when the casinos will be able to open their doors again.