The Mississippi Gaming Commission, under the Mississippi Gaming Control Act, denied site approval for a Biloxi casino to RW Development LLC in 2008, 2016 and 2017. RW appealed the final two rulings, which were combined into a single case, to the Mississippi Supreme Court. On December 10, 2020, the high court unanimously affirmed the state gaming commission’s earlier decisions denying RW site approval for a casino.
The supreme court’s decision affirmed that a legal site for a gaming licensee must be within 800 feet of the mean high water line, which is where the water meets the shore–not the toe of the seawall; that the point from which the 800-foot measurement is made must be on land owned or leased by the applicant; and that the measurement point must be on land that will be an integral part of the proposed project.
Previously, Harrison County Circuit Court ruled 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. In addition, the Gaming Commission reaffirmed its previously stated position that proposed gaming establishments would not be allowed to be located adjacent to public beaches.
The supreme court’s ruling declared the regulations are reasonable under the Gaming Control Act and well within the authority of the Gaming Commission to promote.
