Casino Litigation

Smith Phillips Mitchell Scott & Nowak is a leader in casino gaming and players’ rights litigation. Casino gaming is growing throughout the United States. With major casino destinations at Tunica in northwest Mississippi and Biloxi on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Mississippi is now the third largest casino gaming state. Smith Phillips represents casino patrons and players in gaming disputes, promotion fraud cases, and other types of casino-related litigation.

Featured Case

$2.3 Million Judgment in Casino Intersection Death Case

In a non-jury case tried in the Circuit Court of Tunica County, Mississippi, Smith Phillips clients Rachael McBride and her young son, Trey, obtained a $2.3 Million judgment as a result of the wrongful death of husband and father, Larry McBride.  Mr. McBride was killed in December of 1993 in a collision with a Classic Coach casino shuttle bus.  The collision occureed at an unmarked intersection.  The stop sign had been knocked down in a previous collision at the same site.  In McBride v. Miss. Dept. of Transportation, Classic Coach, Inc., et al, Circuit Judge John L. Hatcher found the Department of Transportation, Classic Coach, and Coach driver Albert Rush, Sr. liable for the death.  “Recoverable damages” were assessed by the Court at $2.6 Million, resulting in a judgement in the amount of $2.34 Million for the McBrides after reduction for 10% comparative negligence assessed to McBride.  The Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed as modifies at 823 So.2d 517. For a complete copy of the Court Opinion and Final Judgment, click here.

Examples of other casino-related cases handled by Smith Phillips include:
  • Patron disputes. In a landmark Mississippi case, a $1.7 million progressive slot machine jackpot, denied by the State Gaming Commission, was reinstated by the Court.

  • Promotion fraud cases. An undisclosed cap on winnings in a $350,000 promotion was declared invalid when a Smith Phillips client had accumulated substantial casino table "tickets." The client’s winnings, thus, were not capped.

    The family of a patron attracted by a "paycheck cashing" promotion filed suit when the patron was killed in an automobile collision after consuming free liquor which accompanied the promotion.

  • Premises liability cases. Personal injuries from defective sidewalks; injuries to pedestrian struck on premises by casino shuttle bus; and multiple injury and death cases from defective road designs of casino-owned feeder roads.

  • Casino employee rights cases. Smith Phillips recovered termination benefits for hundreds of casino workers terminated without notice under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act).

To learn more about the significant impact which the casinos have had upon civil litigation in North Mississippi, please go to our featured article using the link indicated below.

Smith Phillips also handles numerous cases arising from casino-related automobile injuries and deaths.  Founding partner Briggs Smith is chairman of the Gaming Law Litigation Group of the American Association for Justice (AAJ), an organization of over 40,000 trial lawyers from every state in the United States.

For publications relating to casino litigation and prominent casino-related cases, visit "Publications" and "Prominent Cases."