Will Biloxi get a new casino on Veterans Avenue? The Supreme Court just ruled.
Ray Wooldridge has big dreams of building a casino on Veterans Avenue in Biloxi, and when the Mississippi Gaming Commission and courts ruled against his site, he took their decisions to the state Supreme Court.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court upheld rulings that the property at 1820 Beach Boulevard, east of Veterans Avenue, doesn’t meet the regulations for a legal casino site.
“The Court agrees with and affirms both decisions of the Harrison County Circuit Court affirming the decision of the MGC,” the ruling says.
The court said that in both cases brought by RW Development, the developer failed to meet the requirements for a casino site or provide evidence that its proposed casino site was within the required 800 feet of the mean high water line (MHWL).
In the second case, the ruling says, RW “failed to establish that the MHWL point of reference was located on RW’s premises, that RW owned or leased the land contiguous to the point of reference and its proposed gaming site, and that the land would play an integral part in RW’s project.”
Wooldridge, former owner of the New Orleans Hornets NBA team, built Big Play Entertainment Center while he waited for permission to proceed with his plans for a casino on both sides of Veterans Avenue. The complex now has bowling, miniature golf, laser tag and many other family amusements, and a go-kart track recently opened on the east side of Veterans Avenue.
The Gaming Commission three times turned down the proposed casino site:
▪ The first application was denied on July 17, 2008, after a day-long hearing in Biloxi.
▪ In January 2017, with new commissioners sitting on the gaming commission, RW applied again for site approval, and a public hearing was held in February 2017 and the decision again was against the site.
▪ RW Development again filed for site approval in June 2017, and In July the Gaming Commission again denied the application.
Sun Herald reporter Margaret Baker contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 3:31 PM.
