{"id":609,"date":"2025-04-02T05:38:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T05:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/?p=609"},"modified":"2025-09-22T12:09:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T12:09:47","slug":"mississippi-sports-betting-will-remain-limited-to-casinos-as-online-bill-fails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/02\/mississippi-sports-betting-will-remain-limited-to-casinos-as-online-bill-fails\/","title":{"rendered":"Mississippi Sports Betting Will Remain Limited to Casinos as Online Bill Fails"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>Legislation to allow online sports betting in Mississippi is dead for 2025<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Sports betting is limited to retail casino sportsbooks<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>A motion to ban controversial sweeps websites also failed<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Mississippi sports betting remains confined to the state&#8217;s 26 commercial casinos and three tribal gaming properties. It will stay that way for the foreseeable future after legislation to allow online bets failed once again in the Jackson capital.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_348520\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-348520\" data-style=\"width: 858px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-post-thumbnail-858xAUTO wp-image-348520 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"Mississippi sports betting online sportsbook\" width=\"858\" height=\"572\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/FdXQSmyX0AEKLOQ-858x572-1.jpg\"><figcaption>The BetMGM Sportsbook at the Beau Rivage Resort &amp; Casino in Biloxi, Miss. Mississippi sports betting will remain limited to in-person at casinos after legislation to allow online sports bets failed. (Image: X)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Mississippi legalized in-person sports betting at casinos and riverboats soon after the US Supreme Court overturned the federal ban in May 2018. Just three months later, retail sportsbooks opened inside Mississippi casinos.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Mississippi lawmakers opted to limit sports gambling to the casinos to drive more foot traffic to the resorts, which had experienced a visitation decline and a 2% drop in gross gaming revenue between 2017 and 2018. The thinking worked, as GGR increased by 2.2% in 2018 and 3.5% in 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Some casinos and lawmakers supportive of allowing sportsbooks to take bets over the internet say Mississippi is missing out on an estimated $25 million a year in sports betting taxes. Opponents, mainly smaller casinos, say allowing online bets would negatively impact them because the major sportsbook operators &#8212; FanDuel, DraftKings, and BetMGM &#8212; would likely partner with the larger casinos along the Gulf.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Sweeps Bill Sports Betting Casualty<\/b><\/span><span class=\"s1\"><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Senate Bill 2510 was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mississippi-lawmakers-sweep-away-sweepstakes\/\">filed in early March<\/a> by state Sen. Joey Fillingane (R-Columbia). The statute was designed to rid Mississippi of unregulated online casino gambling websites masquerading as &#8220;sweepstakes&#8221; platforms. The bill would have increased the criminal violation for running an unlicensed interactive gaming operation from a misdemeanor to a felony.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The controversial sweeps websites matter is an issue facing much of the country.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">SB2510 swiftly passed the Senate with unanimous support. It gained strong support in the House, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mississippi-sports-betting-expansion-bill-clears-house\/\">Rep. Casey Eure&#8217;s<\/a> (R-Harrison) amendment to include the authorization of online sports betting generated backlash in the upper chamber.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Senate Gaming Committee Chair David Blount (D-Jackson) said his committee wouldn&#8217;t consider online sports wagering unless asked by the Mississippi Gaming Commission (MGC), a request that never came. Blount refused to concur with the Eure amendment to SB2510, which prompted the convergence of a special conference committee.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Fillingane and Blount, along with Sen. Mike Thompson (R-Gulfport), convened with Eure and Reps. Jay McKnight (R-Harrison) and Brent Anderson (R-Hancock) to try and hash out their differences. On Monday night, the conference conceded no mutual ground was found and SB2510 was deemed dead.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">To link bills together when the topics are not related is not the way the legislature should work,&#8221; Blount said of his refusal to add online sports betting to the sweeps ban.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Blount is the vice chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Win for Sweeps<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Blount and Eure&#8217;s deadlock was a victory for the sweeps market, which continues to contend in court filings and before lawmakers that its products don&#8217;t violate state gambling laws.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The Social &amp; Promotional Games Association (SPGA), the trade group representing the interests of platforms like Chumba Casino, Stake, and LuckyLand Slots, claims social sweepstakes are free-to-play and never require a purchase for a player to win a game.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">&#8220;Unlike online casino products, social sweepstakes games include a no-purchase-necessary option. Most players participate for free, and the games offer a low-pressure, low-risk entertainment experience &#8212; one of the reasons they enjoy such broad consumer appeal,&#8221; an SPGA statement to <i>Casino.org<\/i> read.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mississippi-sports-betting-will-remain-limited-to-casinos\/\">Mississippi Sports Betting Will Remain Limited to Casinos as Online Bill Fails<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\">Casino.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Legislation to allow online sports betting in Mississippi is dead for 2025 Sports betting is limited to retail casino sportsbooks A motion to ban controversial sweeps websites also failed Mississippi sports betting remains confined to the state&#8217;s 26 commercial casinos and three tribal gaming properties. It will stay that way for the foreseeable future after legislation to allow online bets [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":612,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609\/revisions\/612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chuckwardrealestate.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}