Mississippi will not be getting mobile sports betting in 2022.
Four bills that would have legalized online Mississippi sports betting in the state died in committee Tuesday.
The bills were introduced throughout January but none made it to a vote, even as mobile Louisiana sports betting launched last week.
What happened to MS online sports betting?
Rep. Casey Eure, chairman of the MS House Gaming Committee, said last week the bills faced opposition from five local casino operators.
Eure told local news that the casinos were still looking at mobile betting down the road, despite the opposition this year.
“I think they’re all working toward it,” Eure said.
Lobbyist John Pappas highlighted what faces Mississippi moving forward:
Not enough land-based concessions?
Mississippi casinos have had betting since 2018 but on-property only. The 2022 bills had some concessions to land-based operators, but apparently not enough.
One of the bills called for in-person registration for online accounts. It also called for accounts to be renewed in-person every 12 months. That would have been the first requirement of its kind in the US.
Another had similar language but without the in-person signup requirement.
Will 2023 be different for MS sports betting?
MS casinos may feel differently next year if they see their retail betting handle start to drop. And that looks likely given the growing competition in the region.
When Mississippi launched legal betting August 2018, none of its border states offered betting, which meant those retail casinos were busy, especially with folks coming from Louisiana.
But sports betting in Louisiana is now legal and booming.
Six sportsbooks went live in LA at the end of January. The sportsbooks are:
- Barstool Sportsbook
- BetMGM
- BetRivers
- Caesars Sportsbook
- DraftKings
- FanDuel.
Elsewhere, Arkansas launched retail betting in July 2019 and is in the process of approving mobile AR sports betting.
Betting in Tennessee launched in November 2020 with mobile-only sportsbooks. That leaves Alabama to the east with no betting, but that could change this year as well.
