Mississippi lawmakers have once again advanced legislation to expand sports betting, marking one of the few times since legalization that a proposal has cleared a single chamber.
HB 1581 passed the House last week, continuing a recent pattern in which mobile sports betting measures advance in one chamber but fail to cross the finish line.
Mississippi was among the first states to legalize sports wagering after the fall of PASPA in 2018, yet lawmakers have fallen short nearly every year since in efforts to authorize full statewide mobile betting.
Mississippi legislators are also looking to ban sweepstakes casinos this session.
Tough road for mobile Mississippi sports betting?
Despite House passage, HB 1581 faces a familiar path forward. Similar proposals have repeatedly stalled in the Senate or died in conference committee, most recently last year.
A similar effort to legalize online sports betting and ban sweepstakes casinos failed in conference committee in 2025.
Sports betting has been legal in Mississippi since August 2018, but wagering remains restricted to casino property. While some casinos offer mobile apps, bettors must be physically present on licensed premises to place a wager.
Sweepstakes ban also in play
While advancing limited mobile sports betting, lawmakers are simultaneously seeking to shut down unregulated online gambling platforms.
Both the mobile sports betting bill and SB 2104 would expand Mississippi’s criminal gambling statutes to explicitly ban “online, interactive, or computerized” gambling games. The bill classifies online sports pools, race books, and internet sweepstakes casino style games as illegal gambling devices under state law.
SB 2104 passed the Senate last week. It would reclassify violations from misdemeanors to felonies, exposing operators and facilitators of illegal platforms to fines of up to $100,000 per violation and prison sentences of up to 10 years. The bill also authorizes asset forfeiture tied to illegal gambling activity.
