Biloxi Panel Approves Plans For New Black Marlin Casino

The Biloxi Planning Commission voted unanimously on September 3, 2026, to approve the master plan and a zoning change for the Black Marlin, a proposed $119,000-square-foot casino, hotel, and retail development on Veterans Avenue, clearing a key local hurdle for developer RW Development.

RW Development presented the Black Marlin plan at Thursday's meeting, according to WLOX. 

The project includes a hotel, gaming floor, and food and retail space on an 11-acre site facing McDonnell Road, which required a zoning change from waterfront designation to the city's Planned Development Gaming Establishment overlay district ordinance.

"The reason for that is because under a PDGE in our ordinance, which is a Planned Development Gaming Establishment overlay district, all of the property in the request has to be zoned waterfront," Biloxi community development director Jerry Creel said, explaining why the three parcels needed reclassifying before the project could proceed.

Commissioners also approved RW Development's request to remove 28 protected trees from the site, including 25 live oaks, after hearing from a consulting arborist and members of the public. 

"After reports from the people in the audience, questions from people in the audience, and also the report from our consulting arborist who actually went out and looked at the trees, the planning [commission] voted unanimously to approve the removal of the 28 trees," Creel said.

The master plan and zoning change now head to the Biloxi City Council for a final vote.

The project, previously discussed publicly without a settled name, would be the city's ninth casino and the 13th in South Mississippi, according to the Sun Herald.

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Sign-Off Still Needed

RW Development still needs sign-off from the Mississippi Gaming Commission to begin construction, and faces a deadline: the commission's original site approval, granted in December 2023, carries a three-year window to start work that expires in late December 2026. 

Meeting that deadline typically requires the developer to first secure permission to proceed, a process that includes background and financial checks to confirm funding is in place to complete construction.

The Veterans Avenue site has a long history as a target for casino development. 

RW Development spent 15 years pursuing the location before securing site approval from the Mississippi Gaming Commission in December 2023, a decision that established casinos Treasure Bay in Biloxi and Island View Casino Resort in Gulfport, along with the Mississippi Gaming and Hospitality Association, which unsuccessfully appealed in Harrison County Circuit Court.

Black Marlin would add to a wave of new casino activity along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. 

Two other projects, the Tullis Gardens casino and a development from Biloxi Capital LLC on the former Tivoli Casino site, have also cleared Mississippi Gaming Commission site approval in east Biloxi over the past two years, meaning the coast could see multiple new gaming venues move toward construction in the coming years if each developer secures financing and regulatory sign-off on schedule.

The city council's review is expected to focus on the same points raised at the planning commission: the zoning change to waterfront designation, the tree removal, and the overall scale of a 119,000-square-foot property combining a hotel, gaming floor, food, and retail space along one of Biloxi's main beachfront corridors.