MS lawmaker delivers surprise bill in support of online sports betting. Will it work?
Facing yet another year when a bill to legalize online sports betting seems doomed, Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, shook up lawmakers in Jackson and casino operators across the state with a surprise move.
He introduced HB 1881 that would increase taxes on casinos to compensate for the estimated $50 million Mississippi is losing to illegal sports betting.
“This act shall be known and cited as the ‘Integrity in Gaming in Support of Honest Taxpayers Act,” the bill says.
Since the first casinos opened in 1992, the tax on gross gaming revenue has directed 8% to the state and about 4% to the cities, counties and school districts where the casinos are located.
This bill proposes casinos pay an additional 4% to the state to cover the estimated $50 million loss.
HB 1881 came not from the Gaming Committee, but from the House Ways and Means Committee, which passed the bill Tuesday. It now moves to the full House.
Two bills and March 4 deadline
The deadline is March 4 for action on the original mobile sports betting bill, HB 1302, which was introduced by Casey Eure, R-Biloxi, chairman of the House Gaming Committee. It passed the House Feb. 3 and is in the Senate Gaming Committee.
It’s also the deadline for SB 2381, the Public Trust Tidelands bill that passed the Senate Feb. 12 and was double referred to the House Gaming Committee and Ports and Marine Resources.
Both bills failed last year and, despite significant changes to both bills to appease the opponents in the House and Senate, seem likely to meet the same fate this year.
The new bill shakes up the Legislature and the casino industry in a last-ditch effort to get some action.
Casino operators keep bill from passing
Somewhere between 20% and half of the casino operators in Mississippi are opposed to online sports betting, saying it would hurt their profits if wagers could be placed by phone rather than requiring bettors to come into their casinos.
Every bill proposed since sports betting began in Mississippi in 2018 has failed to get online sports betting legalized.
“People are doing mobile sports betting,” Eure said, “just through these offshore companies.”
Mississippi gets no tax benefit from illegal sports wagers, whether placed offshore or with local bookies. The additional revenue from online sports betting could offset the amount gas tax will need to increase to fund repairs to roads and bridges.
Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, chairs the Senate Gaming Committee. He invited every casino operator in the state and representatives from sports betting businesses to the capitol for a discussion about online sports wagering.
“They all got to say their piece, and everybody got to speak,” he said. The operators against online sports betting are concerned with the effect on jobs, he said, if people don’t need to come into their casinos to place a bet.
Blunt says the online sports betting bill still needs some work. “We need language that protects the customer, protects people, he said. “You see pretty substantial increase of associated problems in states where this has been legal.”
Is Mississippi falling behind?
The Mississippi Gulf Coast once was the third largest casino market in the country after Nevada and Atlantic City. In 2024 it fell a spot to fifth largest as states in larger population areas surpassed the Coast.
Mississippi was one of the first states to legalize sports betting after the Supreme Court allowed it in 2018. There now are 39 states, plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, that have sports betting, and 31 of them have legalized mobile sports betting, according to the American Gaming Association.
“In-person gaming remains the bedrock of the industry despite online gaming claiming an increased slice of the revenue pie in 2024,” the AGA says in its 2024 State of the State report. Brick and mortar casinos accounted for $50 billion, or 70% of total revenue in 2024, and online sports betting generated $21.5 billion, or 30% of the total.
National revenue growth was driven almost entirely by online betting in 2024, the report says. More than 95% of sports betting in the U.S. last year was done online.
Mississippi’s sports betting revenue was down 2% in 2024. Louisiana sees about $51 million a year from taxes for online sports betting and Tennessee collected $87.6 million in state taxes in the first year.
“In my 15 years up here, I’ve gotten more calls on mobile sports betting than I had on anything,” Eure said. A poll shows more than 60% of Mississippians want mobile sports betting, he said,
Eure says there is misinformation going around about what he is proposing.
“It seems that all the opposing casinos are talking about i-gaming,” he said, which would allow people to play slots and other games remotely. “Well, my bill has nothing to do with i-gaming.”
One of the casinos that is opposed to mobile sports betting does less than 1% of its total revenue on sports betting, he said, and only 18% of its visitors are from Mississippi.
“I’ve done everything I can to satisfy the Senate. They asked for two platforms versus one. I put that in the bill,” Eure said. “They asked for no credit cards. I put that in the bill. Then I went a step further on my own and put some hold harmless language in there to protect the casinos and the Delta and on the river. So I put $6 million in there.” That fund would allow casinos to draw from it for up to five years if their casino revenue shows a losing year.
Tidelands
Blount is just as adamant about getting the Tidelands bill passed. The legislation is authored by every senator representing the Gulf Coast, he said, with Senator Joel Carter abstaining because his family owns Island View Casino in Gulfport.
“This bill would require a state lease for any casino development,” he said. “It would also give more autonomy to local elected officials for non gaming uses. it would also codify the existing regulations of the (gaming) commission with regard to amenities,” he said, because any two members of the Commission can change the regulations at the next meeting without the guidelines being written into law. The regulations require a 300-room hotel, restaurants and other minimum investment plus something unique that will draw visitors to the Coast.
The tidelands bill is needed for the growth of casinos and tourism on the Gulf Coast, he said.
Mississippi needs “a stable regulatory environment,” he said, which addresses some of the concerns of the Gaming Commission.
Commissioner Kent Nicaud said the commission has to follow the state Legislature’s intent of their statues, but there needs to be some clear definition on casino site approval.
Three proposed casinos came to the Gaming commission with questions of whether they were legal sites under the current legislation. The commission granted site approval to the Tullis Gardens casino in east Biloxi, but on the condition that legal matters could be settled with the Secretary of State over tidelands issues.
The current bill would require every casino to go through the Secretary of State for tidelands approval.
“It does not limit competition. There are more than a dozen legal gaming sites on the Gulf Coast right now,” Blount said.
It would create certainty about regulations, he said, regardless of who the commissioners are, who the governor is. Without the bill, he said, “there’s uncertainty that discourages investments, operators and potential operators, and we want to build on The successes on the Gulf Coast.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2025 at 8:55 AM.
