Mobile sports betting in Mississippi fails again as lawmakers near the end of session
The Mississippi Senate and House struggled to get casino legislation passed that would legalize online sports betting and impose tough penalties for criminal offshore “sweepstakes” games played online.
All the bill pertaining to online sports wagering, sweepstakes and clarifications to tidelands regulation have died.
The house made it very clear they are not going to consider any casino bill unless it contains online sports betting, said David Blount, chairman of the Senate Gaming Committee.
That is correct, said Casey Eure, chairman of the House Gaming Committee.
On Thursday, March27, the deadline for action, SB 2381 went down.
“That died today when the senate did not accept the house language,” Blount said.
The bill originally addressed tidelands leases for casinos built in South Mississippi. “The senate passed a tidelands bill two years in a row,” Blount said, and it was approved by every member of the Coast delegation.
“I’m very dissapointed,” Blount said. He said the legislation is “much needed to provide clarity to the business community and regulators.”
When Eure inserted language to include online sports betting into the bill, the senate killed it.
On Thursday the Senate did advance SB 2510, which originally dealt with penalties of $100,000 for those running online “sweepstakes” games illegally.
“I also inserted mobile sports betting in it,” Eure said.
The Senate did not concur, but did invite conference on Thursday. Eure said he’s already reached out to bill sponsor Sen. Joey Fillingame, to discuss the bill.
There are four casino priorities out there now, Eure said. The house wants mobile sports betting, he said. By agreeing to that, he believes the process would allow the senate to get the three things it wants: To have child support payments withheld from casino winnings, RW Development language dealing with casinos on the Coast and the tidelands bill.
“The main one we want is mobile sports betting,” he said. “We will agree with the three things they want if they agree to mobile sports betting.”
The money Mississippi is losing from not having online sports betting would provide funds for highways, the state retirement system and to cover the reduction in payments from the gradual elimination of income tax.
Nearly 10 million devices in Mississippi are accessing legal mobile sportsbooks in other states, according to a GeoComply check, and 212,000 mobile sports betting user accounts in Mississippi.
Mississippi was one of the first states to approve sports betting after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed it, but bills to allow mobile sports betting have failed several times.
Eure said 31 states, plus Washington D.C., have mobile sports betting.
He said the amount of tax revenue other states are collecting from mobile sports betting is:
▪ Tennessee — $97 million in 2024
▪ Louisiana — $64 million in 2024
▪ Kentucky — $35 million in 2024
▪ North Carolina, which went online in March — $96 million in 2024
“So that just goes to show you that we’re losing a lot of tax revenue to these online sports betting, illegal sports betting like Bovada,” he said.
Eure said Mississippi leads the nation in illegal online sports betting on Google searches, but in other states where legal online sports betting was adopted, it’s the complete opposite.
This year’s bill had modifications requested by the Senate, Eure said, such as allowing two sports betting platforms per casino and banning credit cards for mobile sports betting. Instead, wagers will be by debit card, PayPal and other methods of payment.
The bill also included geofencing technology to ensure bets are placed within Mississippi, and age verification.
To protect smaller casinos, the new bill set up a $6 million fund to reimburse casinos each year for the first five years if their revenue falls because of online sports betting.
The 12% tax from online sports betting would have gone to build and repair roads and bridges in every county.
This story was originally published February 3, 2025 at 5:11 PM.
