Statewide Mississippi Online Sports Betting Hopes Now Dead

Oct 8, 2022; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Mississippi Rebels running back Quinshon Judkins (4) celebrates with quarterback Jaxson Dart (2) after scoring against the Vanderbilt Commodores during the second half at FirstBank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY SportsA bill to legalize statewide Mississippi online sports betting is now deadA conference committee did not find common ground before the Monday, April 29 deadlineMississippi online sports betting remains legal only on casino property

Mississippi online sports betting will only remain legal on casino property, as a House-approved bill to expand the gaming statewide is now officially dead.

Rep. Casey Eure’s (HB 774) Mississippi Mobile Sports Wagering Act died a quiet death late Monday night, as a House and Senate conference committee could not find a compromise to keep the bill alive.

Eure’s bill proposed expanding Mississippi online sports betting from just casino property to throughout the state and included a unique tiered tax system to fund improvements for roads and bridges.

Conference Committee Fails to Find Agreement

Eure’s bill had a strange final few weeks before dying in the conference committee. His version of the bill allowed each of the 26 Mississippi casinos to partner with a sports betting company to offer online sports betting throughout the state.

The bill was approved by the Mississippi Senate Gaming Committee on April 2, but stripped of all its sports betting language before being moved ahead to the Senate as a means to continue work and negotiations on the legislation.

“If people are talking, it’s a good thing. We want to continue to let them do that. We want to continue to move the bill along. There are a lot of issues that we need to consider, from the perspective of the industry and also from the perspective of the consumer, that we will do if we get to the point where we might be able to get something done this year. In the meantime, we don’t want to stop people from listening to each other and working,” Committee Chairman Sen. David Blount (D-29) said at the meeting.

The Senate then approved the bill on April 11 by a 36-15 vote with a reconsideration motion. The motion was not taken up later that week, and the House did not concur with the changes made to the bill and agreed to a conference committee to see if any common ground could be found to approve the bill.

The conference committee had a deadline for Monday, April 29, to move a report forward to the House and Senate, but could not find a compromise . The bill is now listed as officially dead on the state’s legislative website.

Sorry for anyone who had hopes for statewide Mississippi online sports betting. Looks like the conference committee could not find common ground on HB 774.

Monday was the deadline to do so. No statewide online sports betting this year. pic.twitter.com/wfbBCyg3dk

— RLinnehanXL (@RLinnehanXl) April 30, 2024

Eure’s bill was approved by the House on Feb. 1 by a 97-14 vote.

Mississippi has discussed an expansion of online sports betting for the last several years and will likely take up the discussion again in 2025.

Mississippi Bill Details

The House-approved bill dedicated all online sports betting tax revenue into the state’s emergency road and bridge repair fund.

The bill included a tiered tax system for adjusted sports betting revenue as follows:

4% of gross revenue not surpassing $50,000 per month6% of gross revenue that surpasses $50,000, but does not surpass $134,000 per month8% of gross revenue that surpasses $134,000 per month

Each operator would have been required to pay an additional 4% in gross revenue into the road and bridge repair fund. Operators would have been required to pay a maximum of 12% in adjusted gross revenue to the state depending on their revenue each month. Based on fiscal estimates,  the state could have seen annual sports betting tax revenues anywhere from $25 million to $35 million each year.