Hood: No Basis to Halt Choctaw Casino in Jones Co.

JACKSON, Miss. - Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood says there is "no viable legal cause of action" for the state to block a casino proposed on Choctaw tribal land in Jones County.

Gov. Haley Barbour opposes the casino and asked Hood last month to research state law to find a way to stop the development.

Hood said Tuesday that attorneys in his office examined the gaming compact that then-Gov. Kirk Fordice signed with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians in the 1990s, and the compact refers to tribal lands -- plural.

Hood says that means the Choctaws are not restricted to having only their two existing casinos in Neshoba County.

The Choctaws' Miko, or chief, Beasley Denson, praised Hood's research.