JACKSON (AP) - The city of Biloxi, home to a dozen floating casinos demolished by Hurricane Katrina, took a gamble that paid off.

Two months before the storm struck Aug. 29, the coastal town of 50,000 secured an insurance policy against a catastrophic eventsuch as a hurricane disrupting its lucrative gaming revenue stream.

For $92,000, Biloxi bought a "business interruption" policy that pays out $10 million.

The policy apparently was the first of its kind for a Mississippi municipality.

"I offered it to a couple of other cities," said Wayne Tisdale with Stewart Sneed Hewes BancorpSouth Insurance in Gulfport. "Nobody ever turned it down. They just never acted on it."

Mayor A.J. Holloway read a newspaper story about a similar policy that helped another Gulf Coast vacation destination, Orange Beach, Ala., recover from Hurricane Ivan last year. He posted the article on a wall until the City Council was convinced Biloxi needed its own policy.

"He is going to be looked on as a genius for that," city spokesman Vincent Creel said.

Casino proceeds account for about a third of Biloxi's budget. The $10 million policy will cover about six months of lost gaming revenue.

"Someone asked if there was anything we might have done different in hindsight," Creel said. "I said, 'Maybe the mayor would have thought about getting $20 million in insurance.'"

Tisdale said it took about six months to set up the first floating casino on Mississippi's Gulf Coast in the early 1990s.

"The reasoning was that no matter what happened these things would be up and running in six months," he said. "Now that might happen, but I don't think anybody foresaw anything as bad as what happened here."

After Katrina's wrath, Biloxi needs the insurance money just to keep afloat.

"Right now money is going out three times faster than on a normal day because we have so many people (city employees) working so many hours and we have absolutely nothing coming in," Creel said.

The policy was underwritten by Lloyd's of London, which has estimated its Katrina losses at $2.55 billion, its second-biggest loss ever.

The $10 million policy will cover about six months of lost gaming revenue.

Think of it this way: How often do you hear of a casino closing?