Mississippi Online Sports Betting Bill Advances After Statute Modified

Posted on: January 31, 2025, 09:22h. 

Last updated on: January 31, 2025, 09:38h.

To place a legal sports bet in Mississippi, bettors must still venture to a casino or riverboat. Legislation to allow wagers online advanced this week in the Jackson capital.

Mississippi online sports betting Biloxi
The Biloxi skyline features Harrah’s and Golden Nugget casinos. A legislative push to bring online sports betting to Mississippi continues to progress in the Jackson capital. (Image: Shutterstock)

On January 20, Rep. Casey Eure (R-Harrison) and his cosponsor, Rep. Jeffrey Hulum III (D-Harrison), introduced House Bill 1302. The legislation, called the Mississippi Mobile Sports Wagering Act, would allow the state’s current gaming licensees to pursue online sportsbook opportunities.

This week, HB1302 passed the House Gaming Committee, which Eure chairs and on which Hulum sits. The bill would allow each casino to partner with up to two online sportsbooks, or skins. No sportsbook would be allowed to operate online without a brick-and-mortar partnership.

I am committed to the brick-and-mortar casinos and this bill mandates that all sports betting is tethered to brick-and-mortar casinos,” Eure said.

Last year, after a similar online sports betting bill found House support, Eure’s legislation died in the Senate on concerns that online sports betting might hurt brick-and-mortar casinos because sports bettors would no longer be forced to physically patronize the gaming floors.

Mississippi Sports Betting Safety Net 

Last year, senators also wondered if bringing in online sportsbooks might further put smaller, regional casinos at a competitive disadvantage.

Some in the upper chamber predicted that sportsbook leaders like FanDuel and DraftKings would partner with the state’s larger casinos, primarily those on the Gulf like MGM Resorts’ Beau Rivage. If that were to happen, Mississippi’s online sports betting industry would predominantly help the casinos that already command the lion’s share of the state gaming market.

To satisfy those worries, Eure and Hulum say their reworked online sports betting bill now includes the establishment of the Retail Sports Wagering Protection Fund. The fund would be supported with $6 million a year, with the revenue coming from online sports betting taxes.

At the end of each year, casinos that don’t operate an online sportsbook can apply for compensation should their in-person sports betting revenue be less than what it was in 2024, before online sites started taking bets. The Mississippi Gaming Commission (MGC) would allocate the funds proportionately among eligible casinos.

A proposed 12% tax on online sportsbook revenue would primarily benefit the state’s Emergency Road and Bridge Repair Fund. All 82 counties would receive annual distributions for infrastructure projects.

State estimates project that Mississippi is missing out on $40 million to $80 million a year by not allowing online sports betting. Many bettors in Mississippi are currently placing their online bets in neighboring states where mobile betting is allowed, including Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee. 

Sports Betting Addiction Concerns

This year’s online sports betting bill in Mississippi also provides regulations designed to limit problem gambling. The use of credit cards has been struck, though that condition could cause some opposition among conservatives who believe the state government shouldn’t be a “nanny state” and determine how a consumer participates in a regulated market.

The bill would also require licensed online sportsbooks to use player data and technology to aid in identifying potential problem gamblers, use “automated triggers” to identify and manage accounts of potential problem gamblers, and have “levels of intervention and education” to identify at-risk bettors.