A familiar Mississippi sports betting proponent is set to try again, but roadblocks to the state’s online expansion efforts remain.
For the third straight year, Rep Casey Eure will sponsor a bill to take Mississippi sportsbooks online. Eure, who chairs the House Gaming Committee, has tweaked the bill again in hopes to gain support in the Senate, which rejected two attempts to legalise online sports betting last year.
This year, Eure told Mississippi Today, he will direct all online sports betting revenue to the government pension system. Rep. Kevin Felsher floated that idea previously. The Public Employees’ Retirement System is only 55% funded, with unfunded liabilities of approximately $26 billion.
Eure said the state is losing out on millions to the black market and the bill would also help solidify the brick-and-mortar casino business.
“By legalising mobile sports betting, we can eliminate much of the illegal market – including protecting underage bettors – and provide real consumer safeguards in a regulated environment,” Eure said. “This legislation will also give our brick-and-mortar casinos a new revenue stream to ensure their continued success, while the state revenue generated will help close the gap in funding for our Public Employees’ Retirement System.”
The bill will resemble Eure’s proposal from last year, which passed the House, 88-10, by allowing each of the state’s casinos to partner with up to two online platforms.
The legislation will face continued legislative headwinds, however, as Senator David Blount has blocked previous efforts as the chair of the Senate Gaming Committee.
Blount’s Mississippi sports betting opposition
Blount says the revenue potential from online sports betting is not enough to justify legalisation.
Previously, Blount said he would not file a bill unless the Mississippi Gaming Commission asked for one. He also voiced concerns about the impact that online expansion might have on brick-and-mortar casinos. Mississippi was one of the first states to legalise sports betting in 2018, although only at in-person sportsbooks at casinos.
Industry sources suggest the state’s independent casinos have significant sway with lawmakers and are concerned about the effects of letting larger, out-of-state companies have access to the online market.
Last year, Eure included a provision to create a fund from sports betting tax revenue to help mitigate potential losses to casinos. That measure is to be included again this year, in addition to a ban on credit card funding of sportsbook accounts.
The Senate did not take up Eure’s bill last year. In return, the House amended a Senate bill to prohibit sweepstakes casinos by adding online sports betting language to it. That bill died in conference committee.
The existing hurdles are why industry sources aren’t counting on further expansion in Mississippi.
“The states that remain, they are difficult,” said Brandt Iden, vice president of government affairs at Fanatics Betting & Gaming. “A number of political hurdles that are large that exist – tribes, commercial casinos, whatever it happens to be, issues that need to be overcome, it makes it more difficult.”