Mississippi Mobile Sports Betting Fate Grim

Posted on: March 7, 2025, 10:53h. 

Last updated on: March 7, 2025, 11:40h.

Devin O'Connor @CasinoorgDevinO Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Commercial Gaming, Legislation, Politics.
  • Mississippi sports betting is only allowed in person
  • Online sports betting efforts have failed
  • Betting will likely remain limited to casinos

The odds are good that Mississippi sports betting will remain limited to in-person wagers.

Mississippi sports betting online mobile
The Mississippi State University Bulldogs Bully statue outside Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville. Mississippians will likely need to continue visiting a casino sportsbook to place a legal sports bet after legislation to expand wagering to the internet stalled in the state Senate. (Image: Shutterstock)

Despite best efforts by Mississippi House lawmakers, who last month passed a bill to expand sports gambling to the internet by strong 88-10 majority support, the legislation was defeated in the Senate. Mississippi Rep. Casey Eure (R-Harrison), who chairs the House Gaming Committee, filed the chamber’s mobile sports wagering bill with his Democratic co-sponsor, Rep. Jeffrey Hulum III (D-Harrison).

House Bill 1302 would have allowed Mississippi’s 26 commercial casinos to partner with up to two online sportsbook businesses, with online sports betting revenue taxed at roughly 12%. Eure’s bill suggested allowing the state’s online sports gambling tax benefit to the Emergency Road and Bridge Repair Fund.

Though the sports betting expansion fielded widespread support in the lower chamber, enthusiasm in the Mississippi Senate won’t be tallied due to Sen. David Blount’s (D-Jackson) opposition.

Blount, who chairs the Senate Gaming Committee, has reservations about allowing online sports bets. Blount and others who oppose mobile sportsbooks think it could reduce foot traffic at the state’s casinos, including on the Gulf Coast, where the market fell outside of the top five richest gaming markets in the country last year.

Mississippi casino revenue was flat last year at approximately $1.57 billion, a 0.3% year-over-year decline.

Sports Betting Concerns

A frustrated Eure says his 2025 Mississippi sports betting bill was authored to appease the concerns Blount raised in 2024. To ensure that mobile sports betting wouldn’t hurt smaller casinos that might not field interest from sportsbook leaders like FanDuel and DraftKings, HB1302 included a provision that would establish $6 million a year in funding that would be allocated to properties that don’t partner with online sportsbooks.

After Blount killed HB1302, Eure resorted to a procedural move to slide the authorization of mobile sports betting into two gaming bills being considered by the Senate Gaming Committee. Blount scolded Eure for sliding in online sports betting to the bills.

I think each bill should be looked at on its own merits. If you think it’s a good bill, you should pass it. If you think it’s a bad bill, certainly you have every right to oppose it, but to link bills together when the topics that are not related to each other, to me, is not the way the legislature should work,” Blount said.

Senate Bill 2381 deals with a proposed amendment to the state’s controversial procedures regarding public trust tidelands leases, which are critical to the Gulf’s casino operators for land-based facilities. Senate Bill 2510 seeks to specifically prohibit online gaming and online casino websites that operate from offshore jurisdictions.

Sports Betting Boom Slows

There are 39 states, plus Washington, DC, that have legal sports betting. All of their legal sports gambling operations commenced after May 2018 when the landmark ruling from the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that a federal ban in all but Nevada was unconstitutional.

Over the past seven years, sports betting has consumed state legislatures and the gaming industry. Things have slowed, however, over the past year.

Only Missouri joined the sports betting industry in 2024. And in 2025, it appears no states with legalize sports gambling, with only sports betting legislation in Hawaii remaining active.