The plan to bring a 13th casino to the Gulf Coast region of Mississippi reportedly received a massive boost last week when the southern state’s highest court ruled in favor of the developer behind the envisioned $180 million project.

According to a Thursday report from local television broadcaster WLOX-TV, Long Beach Harbor Resorts LLC is hoping to bring its gambling-friendly Long Beach Harbor Resort development to a seaside plot of Harrison County land that once hosted a franchise of the Kmart Corporation. This entity is led by businessman James Parrish and purportedly earlier disclosed that the finished facility for the city of Long Beach would feature a trio of restaurants, some 40,000 sq ft of exhibition space and a 300-room hotel as well as a unique feature to make it stand out from other such enterprises in the region.

Inundation interest:

The design for the future development was reportedly approved by the Mississippi Gaming Commission in January of 2019 but immediately ran into trouble over concerns that its large parking lot would not sit high enough above the high-water line. This part of the complex is to purportedly be situated on the south side of United States Route 90 between the coming Long Beach Harbor Resort and the existing Long Beach Harbor with critics having warned that it could fall victim to substantial flooding should another storm similar to 2005’s Hurricane Katrina strike.

Conditional clause:

WLOX-TV reported that Long Beach Harbor Resorts LLC has held a lease with the city of Long Beach for the site of the coming casino’s parking lot since 2010 stipulating that the land may be utilized ‘in connection with a gaming establishment’ but containing the additional caveat that ‘no actual gaming activities shall be conducted or permitted south of United States Route 90’. This arrangement purportedly came to be known as the Tidelands Lease and Boundary Agreement and was the subject of a lawsuit brought by the office of former Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann in 2019 following the project’s approval by the Mississippi Gaming Commission.

Definitive decision:

However, the Mississippi State Supreme Court has now reportedly ruled in favor of Long Beach Harbor Resorts LLC and the tenets of the Tidelands Lease and Boundary Agreement. The current Mississippi Secretary of State, Michael Watson, purportedly divulged that he has accepted the court’s decision and will now allow work on the coming Long Beach Harbor Resort to begin.

Reportedly read a statement from Watson…

“The Mississippi State Supreme Court’s decision today is narrowly tailored to decades-old agreements between the city of Long Beach and Long Beach Harbor Resorts LLC as well as the agreements between the city and the state of Mississippi. We will honor the court’s ruling.”