Mississippi Online Sports Betting Bill Likely Heading to Conference Committee

• The Mississippi Senate approved a bill this week that formerly contained online sports betting language
• A Senate gaming committee last week approved the House’s online sports betting bill, but stripped it of all sports betting language
• The House will now likely agree to a conference committee with Senate to continue their discussions on the bill

Mississippi online sports betting’s fate is likely  heading to a conference committee of House and Senate representatives.

It’s been an interesting two weeks for Rep. Casey Eure’s (HB 774) Mississippi Mobile Sports Wagering Act. Last week the bill was approved by a Senate gaming committee, 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.

The Senate approved the bill this week by a 36-15 vote with a reconsideration motion. The motion was not taken up on Thursday afternoon, and the legislation will likely now head to a conference committee for further discussion.

Bill’s Fate Heading to Conference

Eure’s sports betting bill was stripped of all its sports betting language by the Senate gaming committee last week as a means to “move the bill along,” according to committee chairman Sen. David Blount (D-29).

“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,” he said at the committee meeting.

The House version of 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.

The bill was moved forward to the Senate and approved Tuesday, but a motion to reconsider was made during that time. Blount proposed tabling the motion to reconsider Thursday afternoon and his motion was accepted.

“The bill that was held on the motion simply brings forth the code sections that were in the bill originally passed by the house. There is no new language and I anticipate the house will invite conference when we send it back to them,” Blount said.

If a conference is requested by the House, which Blount believes it will do, representatives from both chambers will meet to negotiate what the bill will include. Sports betting will certainly again be considered by the conference members.

Mississippi’s legislative session is scheduled to end on Sunday, May 5.

Mississippi Bill Details

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

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,  the state could see annual sports betting tax revenues anywhere from $25 million to $35 million each year.

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, Mississippi could have just a handful of sports betting operators partnering with all of the casinos in the state.