Big Black casino site argued before Mississippi’s high court

Gina Holland

Tuesday, March 7, 2000 | 9:14 a.m.

JACKSON, Miss. - Mississippi regulators' decision to block plans for casino on the Big Black River is being reviewed by the state Supreme Court in a case that could have far-reaching implications.

Vicksburg leaders have battled for four years with a casino company and property owner over the proposed race track and casino on the Big Black, which branches off from the Mississippi River.

The Gaming Commission sided with Vicksburg in 1996, finding that the Warren County site picked by Multi Gaming Management/Horseshoe Gaming was not a proper location for a casino. A Hinds County judge disagreed a year later, setting up the appeal to the high court.

"If the commission decision is not affirmed, it's going to open the floodgates and there will be a casino in every ditch, puddle and stream in Mississippi," Vicksburg Mayor Robert Walker said after a one-hour court hearing Monday.

William Spell, attorney for landowner E.L. Pennebaker, said the Gaming Commission wrongly tried to stop competition by rejecting the Big Black site at the urging of Vicksburg leaders and casino executives in the Mississippi River town.

"This court in this case will determine whether gaming in Mississippi shall be regulated honestly and competitively to preserve the public trust, as mandated by the Mississippi Legislature, or whether competition in gaming will be suppressed by existing casinos using powerful political and financial influences," he told the justices.

In addition to the lawsuit over the Hinds County decision, litigation is being waged on several fronts over the commission's refusal to allow gambling on the Big Black.

Last fall, a Pike County jury awarded Pennebaker and a casino developer more than $3 million in a lawsuit accusing two Vicksburg casinos and a bank of conspiring to derail plans for gaming on the Big Black.

Assistant Attorney General Charlene Pierce said the law gives Gaming Commission wide discretion in regulating the casino industry.

"It's there to prevent a citizen from waking up and a casino is next door," she said.

Gaming Commissioner Victor Smith of Jackson said Vicksburg's economy would be devastated if the commission allowed casinos on the Big Black, which would intercept traffic from Jackson. He said the decision was the toughest ever faced by the commission.

Scott Andress, the attorney for Horseshoe Gaming, said until that decision the Gaming Commission had allowed full competition among casinos.

Andress said if residents of DeSoto or Jackson counties ever approve gambling, the commission could get pressure to limit gaming there from casinos in neighboring counties.

"We may as well tell the citizens of those counties, don't bother to vote," he said.