Judge rules on casino resort’s right to develop Tullis property in East Biloxi
Circuit Judge Randi Mueller has affirmed the Mississippi Gaming Commission’s decision to allow a casino resort on city of Biloxi property in East Biloxi where historic Tullis-Toledano Manor was located.
The Gaming Commission granted site approval in December 2024 to Tullis Gardens Hotel and Casino. The next month, Treasure Bay LLC and the Mississippi Gaming & Hospitality Association, whose members include casinos, filed the lawsuit in an effort to block development.
Mueller concluded the site is legal under laws the Mississippi Legislature passed after Hurricane Katrina that allow casinos on land rather than water if control of the property extends to the water. Before Katrina’s widespread destruction, casinos were confined to buildings on the water.
The secretary of state still has a lawsuit pending in Chancery Court against the city and Tullis Gardens to block the project. That lawsuit, filed in October 2024, must be resolved before the project can move forward. The secretary of state owns state land subject to the tide’s ebb and flow and has challenged Biloxi’s right to lease such property to the casinos.
But the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled in another case that the state never owned some of the waterfront land in East Biloxi. Instead, it was passed to private owners through the Spanish land grant. Those properties include the Tullis land, Mueller noted.
Treasure Bay and the association argued, among other things, that the lease was invalid. But Mueller found the city owns the waterfront property and the lease with Tullis Gardens is valid.
