Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Following Hurricane Katrina, the Mississippi Legislature amended the Mississippi Gaming Control Act to allow Mississippi Gulf Coast casinos to locate within 800 feet inland of a previous legal gaming site. Then, in December 2020 the Mississippi Supreme Court rendered an important opinion interpreting the legal site provisions of both the Mississippi Gaming Control Act and the Mississippi Gaming Commission regulations.
RW Development (RW) owns property at the intersection of Veterans Avenue and US Highway 90 in Biloxi, Mississippi. RW filed its first application for gaming site approval for the Veterans Avenue property in June 2008. The
Mississippi Gaming Commission (Gaming Commission) denied approval, stating that the statute required an 800-foot measurement to commence from the “mean high water line,” which is where the water meets the shore, and not the toe of the seawall; that RW did not own and/or lease property to the shore; and that RW had not shown how the land extending to the south from its property to the mean high water line would be an integral part of the project as required by the Gaming Commission regulations. The Gaming Commission reaffirmed its previously stated position to not allow proposed gaming establishments to be located adjacent to public beaches. RW did not pursue an appeal of the denial.