Casino employees across South Mississippi recently received a letter informing them they must repay some of the state unemployment benefits they received at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
All 12 Coast casinos closed in March 2020 and reopened two months later with safety precautions to protect staff and customers.
BJ Smith, a pit boss at Treasure Bay Casino in Biloxi, got one of those letters. It arrived the same day as the stated deadline to appeal the decision, he said.
He doesn’t know how many others in South Mississippi were told they must repay benefits. Smith said he saw a stack of about 40 to 50 copies of letters from other employees when he went into Treasure Bay’s human resources department to find out what he should do. Employees at other Coast casinos took to private groups on social media to express their frustrations.
