Official urges group to cease discussion of inland casinos

Friday, Oct. 15, 2004 | 9:17 a.m.

BILOXI, Miss. -- Secretary of State Eric Clark has asked a group he organized to drop discussions of inland casinos as a means of protecting the coast's gambling industry.

However, members of the committee said Wednesday that moving casinos ashore will remain an option to be recommended to the Legislature.

Clark argued moving casinos on land would prevent the state from collecting tidelands leases that generate about $6 million a year for environmental protection, parks, piers and educational programs.

Jerry St. Pe, chairman of the Mississippi Gaming Commission and a committee member, said: "It seems to me the task before us is how do we balance putting the $6 million a year in tidelands funds against the hundreds of millions of dollars in (gambling) taxes, which is important revenue to the state. I think we can do that as opposed to choosing one or the other."

Clark told the committee that the current system is what citizens voted for, changing the rules would be unfair to existing casinos, engineering options are available to better protect casinos and a major hurricane would destroy or severely damage casinos even if they are moved ashore.

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