Mississippi’s Push for Legal Mobile Sports Betting Derailed by Concerns Over Casinos

Mobile sports betting will remain illegal in Mississippi, as legislative negotiators failed to advance a final proposal on Monday. The House and Senate had both passed versions of the Mississippi Mobile Sports Wagering Act earlier in the legislative session with the intention of allowing the state to join the 30 other states where mobile sports betting is legal. However, concerns about the potential negative impact on casinos led to the failure to advance the final proposal.

Sports wagering has been permitted in Mississippi for years, but online betting has remained illegal. Lawmakers and casinos were worried that legalizing online betting could harm the revenue of the state’s casinos. The bill would have required betting companies to contract with brick-and-mortar establishments in order to address these concerns. Estimates indicated that legalizing mobile sports betting could bring in over $25 million a year in tax revenue for Mississippi.

One of the main reasons for legalizing mobile sports betting was to curb the influence of illicit offshore sports betting platforms in Mississippi, which leads the nation in illegal online sports betting Google searches. During legislative debates, some lawmakers raised concerns that smaller casinos would be left out of partnerships with gambling platforms, with most of the money flowing to the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s larger casinos.

Despite having until Monday night to file a final proposal for consideration, a small group of negotiators failed to meet their deadline and there was no final product for lawmakers to consider. Michael Goldberg is a corps member for Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative, a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him at @mikergoldberg