Legislative negotiators in Mississippi were unable to agree on a final proposal for the Mississippi Mobile Sports Wagering Act, which would have legalized mobile sports betting in the state. Despite the House and Senate passing versions of the bill, concerns about its impact on the state’s casinos prevented it from moving forward. Although sports wagering has been legal in Mississippi for years, online betting has remained prohibited. The bill aimed to address this by allowing the state to join the 30 others where mobile sports betting is legal.
Republican Rep. Casey Eure of Saucier, the bill’s sponsor, estimated that legalizing mobile sports betting could generate over $25 million in tax revenue annually for the state. Additionally, he believed that it would reduce the appeal of illegal offshore sports betting platforms in Mississippi, which has one of the highest rates of illegal online sports betting Google searches in the country. However, some lawmakers raised fears that smaller casinos would be left out of partnerships with betting platforms and that most of the revenue would flow to already established casinos on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
During discussions in the Legislature, Michael Goldberg was a reporter with Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative program placed journalists in local newsrooms to cover underreported issues. He tweeted about his concerns regarding this issue @mikergoldberg