Emily Womack laughs with friends at a blackjack table at the IP Casino in Biloxi, Miss. Womack traveled from Panama City Beach, Fla., to celebrate a friend's birthday at the casino.

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NEW ORLEANS — Minus stout competition from the Mississippi Gulf Coast and with thousands of recovery workers with time and money on their hands, Louisiana's casino industry is enjoying its biggest boom ever — thanks to hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

But Mississippi, with a reconstruction plan featuring shoreside casinos that are attracting billions of dollars in investments, will be back in the hunt soon and positioning itself to reclaim its gambling dominance in the South, analysts say.

Flocks of gamblers have provided a revenue boost for Louisiana, which faced dire predictions of deep cuts in spending after the storms. Through the first 11 months of the current fiscal year, the state's take was $473.8 million, up sharply from $413.9 million a year ago.

That's despite the closure of three casinos since Katrina and Rita and the exodus of many south Louisiana residents.

"The people who have come here to rebuild the city have a lot of money in their pockets and not a whole lot of entertainment options," said industry analyst Nick Danna of Stern, Agee & Leach in New Orleans.

In May, gamblers left behind $220.2 million at the state's 16 casinos, a big jump from $199.5 million in May 2005. In April, gamblers lost $213.9 million, compared with $189.4 million lost in April 2005.

Most of the increase has been centered in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, which saw big population shifts because of Katrina, and in Lake Charles, where an influx of repair workers has joined regular throngs from nearby Texas.

How long the boon will last, however, is anyone's guess.

Analysts and industry figures suggest the planned $5 billion of investments to rebuild Mississippi's coastal casinos will return Louisiana's gambling outlets to second-class status.

Some picture the Mississippi coast, already one of the nation's top gambling markets before Katrina, ranking behind only Las Vegas and Atlantic City, N.J., in terms of prestige, size and the number of gamblers within a few years.

Nationally, gambling has picked up after a period of slow growth after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that sharply cut travel. According to the American Gaming Association, state-licensed casinos won $30.3 billion in 2005, up from $28.9 billion in 2004, $27 billion in 2003 and $26.5 billion in 2002.

Already, business in Mississippi has rebounded.

The three coastal casinos that have reopened since Katrina grossed a total of $246.6 million from January through April, according to the Mississippi Gaming Commission. That's more than half of what 12 coastal casinos took in during the same period of 2005.

"It's really amazing," said Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway. "A lot of people say this is FEMA money and insurance money, but I don't believe that. We're getting a lot of people from out of town coming here. The casinos tell me their base is coming back."