The Mississippi Gaming Commission recently held a hearing in D’Iberville regarding site approval for two casino developments that previously were rejected. Attorneys and experts for RW Development, which proposed a casino in Biloxi, and for Jacobs Entertainment, which proposed a casino in Diamondhead, presented arguments at the standing-room-only hearing. . Opponents of approving the two sites said it could lead to more casino development in South Mississippi sites to casinos. But denying site approval to one or both companies could mean the loss of hundreds of jobs and millions in economic development.
The commission rejected RW Development’s bid to build a casino in Biloxi in 2008 and Colorado-based Jacobs Entertainment’s application for Diamondhead in 2014. The developers’ proposals originally were denied because of a rule that states a developer must own or control land all the way to the water. A thin strip of public beach separates RW Development’s land from the Bay of St. Louis. Jacobs Entertainment’s site was declared to be on a man-made canal, not the bay front.
Both companies said they would challenge the decisions in court, but instead waited until three new commissioners were appointed. A unanimous three-person vote is required for the projects to proceed.
Larry Gregory, executive director of the Mississippi Gaming and Hospitality Association, representing casinos statewide, previously wrote, “The law has not changed, the legislative intent has not changed, the applicants are the same, the proposed sites are the same and the decisions of the commission should be reaffirmed. How the commission reacts to these applications has implications beyond just these two properties.”
RW Development’s lawyers argued the water’s edge should be defined as the sea wall. However, John Hairston, one of the gaming commissioners who denied the original application, said that definition would lead to “a proliferation of casinos” that would “go beyond what the legislature intended when it allowed onshore casinos after Hurricane Katrina.”
Jacobs Entertainment first looked at D’Iberville for a casino in 2004. After Diamondhead became a city in 2012 and was zoned for a casino, the gaming commission approved the Scarlet Pearl Casino in D’Iberville but voted 3-0 to deny Jacobs’ application because they said the property was not on the Bay of St. Louis but on a man-made canal with a large area of marshland between the bay and the casino site.
The commission did not vote at the hearing nor did the developers present the economic benefits of their proposed casinos. The meeting strictly was for developers to show a footprint of the casinos and make their case for site approval.
