A firm ‘no’
by: William H. Perkins, Jr. - Aug 7, 2008 - comment
July 17 was a red-letter day for Mississippians, but many may have missed the significance of the Mississippi Gaming Commission’s firm refusal to skirt state law and thereby open a new chapter in the gamblers’ march to take over the state.
In a unanimous vote after a six-hour hearing at the Biloxi Community Center, gaming commissioners denied RW Development’s plan to have their proposed casino site at Highway 90 and Veterans Boulevard in Biloxi declared a legal gambling site. Problem was, it clearly is not a legal site under state law. Gaming commissioners knew that going in to the hearing and surely so must have RW Development, which is run by native Mississippian and Mississippi State University graduate Ray Woolridge.
Reflecting the pressure brought to bear on the state’s three gaming commissioners, Woolridge told WLOX-TV after the vote, “When you look at what was presented, it was absolutely no rationale for making that decision that it was not a legal site,” said Woolridge. “I think it was a mistake. The decision was a mistake.”
Here’s the rub. After Hurricane Katrina wiped out the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2005, the Legislature rushed to Jackson at Governor Haley Barbour’s call to push through a sweetheart deal that allowed casinos to move 800 feet onshore from their previous mooring over the waters of the Gulf.
Legislators even allowed rights-of-way such as Highway 90 and public utilities to be excluded from the 800-feet count, meaning gamblers are now able to move considerably farther inland than 800 literal feet. RW Development took full advantage of the 800 feet and rights-of-way exclusion to declare their casino site legal. They needed every foot of it—and then some.
RW Development also wanted gaming commissioners to declare the sea-wall, built in the early 1900s, to be declared the legal beginning of the 800-feet measurement and not the mean high tide water line as specified in the Legislature’s sweetheart deal with the gamblers—a difference of possibly several hundred feet obviously in RW Development’s favor.
Groups that were opposed to the Legislature’s sweetheart deal with the gamblers in 2005 predicted that 800 feet would not be enough for the gamblers, and that the sweetheart deal would soon be put to the test. They were right.
Thankfully, gaming commissioners saw through the smoke and mirrors and voted without dissent to kill the RW Development scheme. To do otherwise would have turned state law upside down and, as several observers pointed out, pushed casinos into areas never intended for gambling.
The most pathetic part of the Biloxi hearing was the steady stream of legislators who testified in favor of the RW Development scheme and attempted to persuade commissioners to approve the RW Development scheme. The pro-gambling legislators who testified included Rep. John Hohrn of Jackson, Rep. Randall Patterson of Biloxi, Rep. Michael Janus of Biloxi, and (by letter read by Janus) Rep. Jim Simpson Jr. of Gulfport.
Rep. Bobby Moak of Bogue Chitto, chairman of the House Gaming Commission, testified that he didn’t believe the Legislature would second-guess whatever decision the Gaming Commission made—clear signal that there would be no repercussions if commissioners approved the site.
The simple fact that seemed to elude all those legislators is, if the Legislature had intended for the seawall to be the beginning point for the 800-feet rule, then why didn’t they clearly state that in their 2005 sweetheart deal instead of plainly writing the mean high tide water law into the law?
Truly, the gambling/political complex in Mississippi won’t be content until there are slot machines on the Tennessee state line. Don’t be surprised if they attempt to change the law during the next legislative session to favor schemes such as RW Development has proposed.
If that happens, you’ll know the gambler’s takeover of the state’s politicians is almost complete, and the Tennessee line is only a short distance away.
This article is reprinted from the July 31, 2008, issue of The Baptist Record, the newspaper of the Mississippi Baptist Convention.
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