Opinion ID: 4537298
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Chancellor’s Determination

Text: ¶39. While the chancellor did conduct her own “analysis of the statutory language and the applicable regulations, as well as persuasive case law,” she also applied deferential treatment to the MDOR’s and the MGC’s interpretations to her analysis. Throughout the chancellor’s analysis, she referenced terms that were found only in the MDOR’s or the MGC’s regulations and not in the language of the statute. Code Section 75-76-193(2) used the broad term “legitimate wager,” whereas the MDOR’s and the MGC’s regulations replaced “legitimate wager” with more specific terms, such as “coin out,” “specific wager,” and “direct result” of slot machine play. Miss. Code Ann. § 75-76-193 (Rev. 2016); see 35 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. V, R. 4.01(100)(11) (adopted Nov. 17, 2011), Westlaw; 13 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 7, R. 16 3.3(b), (k) (adopted May 1, 2013), Westlaw. While we agree that each of these could be a legitimate wager, the chancellor’s short list is not exhaustive. ¶40. The chancellor should have considered all the ways the property given away could have been products of legitimate wagers rather than deferring to the examples listed in the MDOR’s and the MGC’s regulations. Not only did the chancellor limit her consideration to the short list of terms found within the agency interpretations, she also expressed a belief that she had the right to defer to the MDOR’s and the MGC’s regulatory interpretations, rather than taking into account the possible applicability of Greenwood. Thus, we find that the chancellor erred by giving deference to the regulatory interpretations of Section 75-76-193 rather than conducting a de novo review.5 ¶41. In light of the chancellor’s error in deferring to the MDOR’s and the MGC’s interpretations of Section 75-76-193, we proceed to conduct our de novo interpretation of the statute to ascertain whether Section 75-76-193 applies to Hollywood Casinos’ rewards programs’ random drawings.