Proposed South Mississippi casino seeking site approval from gaming commissioners

South Mississippi could have another contender to become the 13th casino on the Coast, as South Beach Casino & Resort is going before the Mississippi Gaming Commission for site approval on Thursday.

This proposed casino site at 6081 South Beach Blvd. in Hancock County is just shy of four acres, reports the Sun Herald. If approved, this would be the third casino site within about two miles of the beach. The property is east of Silver Slipper Casino and adjacent to a 98.5-acre site owned by Cure Land Co. that got site approval but has not yet been built. 

Another South Beach Casino was proposed in 2008 at Veterans Avenue and U.S. 90 in Biloxi and went before the Commission several times for site approval.

Kirk Ladner of Diamondhead and Russell Elliott of Bay St. Louis are requesting site approval for this Hancock County property.

Silver Slipper Casino, east of the proposed new casino

Jay McDaniel, executive director of the Gaming Commission, assured they have met all the regulations to get on the agenda. The Commission requires all new casinos in the area to have 300 hotel rooms, at least 40,000 square feet of casino space, a dining restaurant and an amenity designed to offer something that will grow the local casino market. 

The required legal advertisement in the Sea Coast Echo says South Beach Casino & Resort LLC anticipates the resort will have 40,000 square feet of casino space, 1,100 slot machines, 25 table games and 6 poker tables. 

Developers would next have to apply for approval to proceed, a rigorous process that would require them to show they have the funding to complete the casino and get all the amenities on the compact site, further points out Sun Herald.

South Mississippi has 12 casinos across Harrison and Hancock counties, and several more are proposed in Biloxi, D’Iberville and Long Beach. There would be twice that many on the Coast, but more than 20 casino developers who got site approval since Hurricane Katrina in 2005 have not been able to pull together the financing to build their casino resorts.