Mississippi Mobile Betting: Will Online Gambling be Legalized?
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Let's start off with Mississippi,
00:04 one of the first states,
00:06 once the laws were changed to enact very quickly
00:10 sports betting in person at all of their casinos,
00:15 the Beau Ravage and everywhere else,
00:16 right on the river there, right on the water.
00:19 But mobile has just been behind in Mississippi.
00:21 Like I'm just stunned that here we are
00:23 like three years later and they still
00:26 don't have mobile betting,
00:27 they have the in-person.
00:28 Now again, credit to them,
00:30 they get people go in the casino,
00:31 they can still bet on sports.
00:32 I did it myself, I've talked about that.
00:34 I just am sort of shocked that outside of the casinos
00:38 that you can't bet unless you're like geo-tagged
00:40 right within the area there.
00:42 Is this ever gonna change?
00:43 - It's a possibility.
00:45 I think, you know, heading into next year,
00:47 they are gonna be one of the states to watch
00:49 that I think very likely could get
00:52 online sports betting legalized.
00:54 A lot of the South right now,
00:57 as we've talked about before,
00:58 they kind of are lagging.
01:00 Mississippi does have a rich gaming history
01:02 with their casino.
01:03 So that's why they were able to get the in-person done.
01:05 But, you know, mobile legislation
01:08 just has not moved the needle there.
01:11 And earlier this year,
01:12 they amended a mobile sports betting bill
01:14 to instead be a mobile sports betting study commission.
01:18 And that's what's been meeting lately.
01:20 They're tasked with putting together a report
01:22 for the full legislator by December 15th.
01:25 And so they've been meeting,
01:26 talking about all the things they need to do,
01:28 different kind of aspects they need to come up with.
01:31 They, you know, have already decided if they legalize it,
01:34 they wanna tether to the casinos.
01:36 So that makes sense.
01:37 There's 26 casinos in Mississippi.
01:39 And from there, they just have to kind of figure out,
01:42 you know, tax rates and what they can allow and don't allow.
01:46 A few of the local casino owners are not a fan of this.
01:50 They do not want to expand into online
01:53 because they can kind of see the writing on the wall
01:56 that, you know, a few of the bigger operators
01:58 will partner with the big sports books
02:00 and control the market.
02:01 And I don't think they want to see that happen.
02:04 Also of note, some of the lawmakers
02:07 are kind of concerned with,
02:09 and you're seeing this a lot in the South
02:12 and across the country,
02:13 is how much does this online access, you know,
02:18 contribute to the increasing problem gaming?
02:21 And a few of them were talking that, you know,
02:25 they would be okay with an online app
02:29 that allows, you know, single game betting,
02:31 but they worry that prop bets, parlay bets,
02:34 and in-play bets would just increase that.
02:38 And those are more of chance, they said,
02:41 than maybe, you know, guessing who's gonna win.
02:44 And so we might see some interesting, you know,
02:48 kind of outcomes here of maybe they do legalize it,
02:51 but maybe it'll be greatly limited of, you know,
02:54 they could go a route like Arkansas that, you know,
02:56 their tax rate keeps revenue in the state,
03:00 and that has kept the big operators out,
03:02 and only local operators are in Arkansas,
03:06 or we could see just a great lip market of bets allowed.
03:11 So Mississippi, along with Alabama, South Carolina,
03:15 those are gonna be interesting state, Georgia,
03:19 interesting states to watch this year,
03:20 because, you know, they've all tried
03:22 to get something rolling the past couple of years
03:24 in terms of online gaming, online sports betting,
03:27 and they haven't been able to do it.
03:29 Mississippi, I think, because of their, you know,
03:31 already having in-person, they might be the best
03:34 out of those couple of states, but, you know,
03:37 they're working on it, and it's more progress
03:39 than they've made in the past.
03:41 (upbeat music)
03:43 (bell ringing)