Biloxi Capital will wait at least another month to learn if it can build a casino in east Biloxi after the Mississippi Gaming Commission again tabled site approval.
The meeting was moved to Biloxi instead of Jackson, which gave the mayor, councilmen and others the opportunity to encourage the commissioners to vote in favor of granting site approval.
Biloxi Capital proposes building a casino and conference center north of U.S. 90 near Harrah’s Gulf Coast. The company spent $40 million for the land 15 or more years ago, said their attorney Michael Cavanaugh.
Executive director Jay McDaniel said he didn’t have a recommendation yet whether to grant site approval, given the comments made during the meeting and the lengthy report just submitted by the Mississippi Gaming and Hospitality Association against site approval.
After voting with the other commissioners to table site approval, Kent Nicaud said the commission has to follow the state Legislature’s intent of their statues, but there needs to be some clear definition on casino site approval.
The commissioners in December gave site approval to the Tullis Gardens casino in east Biloxi on the condition that legal matters can be settled with the Secretary of State over tidelands issues.
“There was a bill presented last year,” Nicaud said. It was intended to provide a clear determination of where casinos can be allowed to be built in South Mississippi when the developer doesn’t own or lease the land to the water’s edge.
That Legislation didn’t make it to the governor’s desk.
“I think you’ll see another blll being presented this year,” he said.
Nicaud said the gaming commissioners haven’t seen a draft of the bill but said he understands there will be some changes to what was proposed last year.
This is the third casino site approval to come before the commission in the last year where there were questions about the property connections to the water. Secretary of State Michael Watson opposed each because they didn’t have a tidelands lease.
Kathryn Hester with the law firm Jones Walker represented the Mississippi Gaming and Hospitality Association at the meeting. She said Biloxi Capital proposes to have a license to use the sand beach to build a pier, which would give connection to the water’s edge.
“It’s a license,it is not a lease,” he said. The license is $12,000 a year for a casino compared to $5.5 million for a Tidelands lease, she said.
Also expected to be introduced in Jackson again this year are bills to allow mobile sports betting in Mississippi.
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