Mississippi Gaming Control Act — Gulf Coast & River County Casino Siting Preemption (MS)

Tracked preemption from the Mississippi overlay bundle.

Overview

Effective
1990-06-29
Sunset
Authority
state
Scope
state:MS

Trigger predicate

When this evaluates true for a parcel, the law's preempted fields take precedence over base zoning.

AND
  • parcel.has_active_casino_overlay == True
  • OR
    • city.county_fips {28045, 28047, 28059}
    • parcel.adjacent_to_mississippi_river_navigable_channel == True

Preempted fields

2 fields on the base district schema are rewritten when the trigger fires.

FieldOpValueNote
base_districts[*].casino_gaming_use_eligibilityoverridestate_gaming_commission_license_required§75-76 vests gaming licensure exclusively with the Mississippi Gaming Commission; local zoning may regulate location but cannot grant or deny a gaming license
base_districts[*].casino_siting_corridoroverridepost_katrina_onshore_within_800_ft_msl_or_existing_riverboat_sitePost-Katrina amendments (§97-33-1 / §27-109-1 amendments, 2005) allow onshore casino development within 800 feet of the mean high-water line in Hancock, Harrison, Jackson; river counties continue to operate dockside/floating per §75-76-33

Citation

Authority source
Miss. Code Ann. §§75-76-1 through 75-76-281 (Mississippi Gaming Control Act); §97-33-1 (general gaming prohibition + Gulf Coast/river-county exceptions); 2005 Special Session Ch. 13 (post-Katrina onshore allowance)
§ §§75-76-1 et seq.; §97-33-1
https://law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/title-75/chapter-76/

Research notes

Eligible counties under §97-33-1 are the three Gulf Coast counties (Hancock, Harrison, Jackson) plus Mississippi River counties (Adams, Claiborne, Coahoma, DeSoto, Hancock, Issaquena, Jefferson, Tunica, Warren, Washington) where county-level local-option referendum has authorized gaming. Counties that have NOT held or have rejected the local-option vote remain casino-prohibited. Bay St. Louis, Biloxi, Gulfport, D'Iberville, Tunica, Vicksburg, Greenville, Natchez are the primary casino-siting jurisdictions. Post-Katrina onshore allowance fundamentally changed Gulf Coast casino siting — the prior dockside-only regime had required moored vessels. Gaming Commission location approval is separate from §17-1 zoning approval; both required.