Mississippi House of Representatives Approves Sweeping Online Sports Betting Bill

• The Mississippi House approved an online sports betting bill by a 97-14 vote
• The bill legalizes online sports betting outside of casinos property in Mississippi
• All 26 state casinos will be able to partner with an online sports betting operator

Perhaps seeing the wave of impending sports betting legislation in neighboring states, the Mississippi House of Representatives convincingly approved a bill to expand online sports betting in the Magnolia State.

The House approved Rep. Casey Eure’s (HB 774) Mississippi Mobile Sports Wagering Act by a 97-14 vote, easily surpassing the necessary two-thirds majority. It now heads to the Mississippi Senate.

The bill allows each of the 26 Mississippi casinos to partner with a sports betting company to offer online sports betting throughout the state. Currently, online sports betting is only legal while on casino property.

Mississippi Bridges and Roads to Benefit from Revenue

Eure submitted an amended version of his bill to the House this afternoon, which now dedicates all online sports betting tax revenue into the state’s emergency road and bridge repair fund.

“I’ve heard your concerns, and we feel this will benefit everyone in this chamber and all Mississippians to divert all 12% to the road and bridges fund,” he said. 

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

• 4% of gross revenue not surpassing $50,000 per month
• 6% of gross revenue that surpasses $50,000, but does not surpass $134,000 per month
• 8% of gross revenue that surpasses $134,000 per month

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

“We could even hit $50 million if you look at what the lottery did,” he said.

A proposed amendment that suggested using geolocation technology to determine where each bet was placed and dedicate those tax revenues to that specific county was tabled by a wide margin.

There are currently 26 commercial dockside and land-based casinos in Mississippi. Under this bill, each would be eligible to partner with one sports betting company to offer online sports betting in the state. However, there are no limits to how many casinos each sports betting operator can partner with. So, in theory, you could have just a handful of sports betting operators partnering with all of the casinos in the state.

Keeping Mississippi Competitive

Prior to the House vote, Eure told his colleagues to keep a close eye to bordering states and their recent sports betting legislation moves.

Georgia’s Senate, he noted, approved a sports betting bill this morning and Alabama will be introducing a comprehensive gaming package in the next several weeks.

“All I’m doing is trying to do is give another product to our casinos industry in our state to stay competitive. I feel like that’s what we’re doing. If you look at surrounding states, see what happened in Georgia, we need to keep this in mind to keep Mississippi moving forward,” he said.

Eure’s bill is not the only sports betting bill that the House may consider. Last week, Rep. Cedric Burnett (D-9) introduced bill HB 271 to the House, which features a similar tiered tax rate to Eure’s bill. Burnett’s bill is currently awaiting a hearing with the Gaming Committee.