00:00Now, Mississippi has been in the forefront of sports betting since it first got legalized
00:05several years ago.
00:06And the one thing that they've been unable to accomplish, Sam, as we've talked about
00:09here many times on the show, is getting live online sports betting outside of the retail
00:15shops.
00:16So I guess it's my age-old question here, Sam, is this ever going to happen?
00:20Because we do bring it up about once, I would say, every couple of months.
00:24It seems like there's progress toward it, and then I can't figure out the reason why
00:28there's so much pushback with this, because every other state around them is online.
00:35Yeah, I'm really not sure if Mississippi will ever legalize online sports betting in the
00:41immediate future.
00:42I think someday it's going to be inevitable when we talk about all the other factors of
00:46why states might want to legalize sports betting more than ever now.
00:48But like you mentioned, Craig, they've had in-person sports betting since 2018.
00:53They're one of the first.
00:54First, a house bill was passed this week, which is actually a pretty big step.
00:58You know, it's very rare that these bills actually pass out of a chamber in Mississippi.
01:02So that could be some progress there.
01:05But the big holdup has been this age-old debate about, you know, in-person casinos.
01:09There's certainly a lot in Mississippi.
01:11Them being wary of losing, you know, traffic to online sportsbooks.
01:16Are people still going to come to the sportsbook to bet if they can just do it from the palm
01:19of
01:20their hand on their couch?
01:21You know, we just talked about the Vegas numbers declining with tourism down.
01:25I'm not sure.
01:26There's been a lot of speculation or debate about whether or not cannibalization is real
01:31when you have online sports betting.
01:33But, you know, the bottom line here has been the interests of the casinos and the casinos
01:37in the state are really felt by the lawmakers there, which is why they're wary or have been
01:43wary to pass online sports betting.
01:45This could be the year as it, you know, finally passed the House last year.
01:49The bill only died in conference committee.
01:51So we'll see how it progresses moving forward.
01:54But Mississippi will be one of those few states we're watching this year in terms of could
01:58they legalize online sports betting.
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