00:00And finally, can we read anything into this that Mississippi is getting closer to legalizing sports betting online?
00:06Because this story is one that just won't go away.
00:08They get closer and then they move further away from this.
00:11Now, to be clear, Mississippi does have in-person sports gambling, but they just have not been able to get
00:15this online.
00:17You know what, Craig?
00:18I think actually you can in this instance.
00:20It's not lost on me that we've talked about Mississippi going online for the past, like, four or five years.
00:26It's kind of been the same story of the House passes a bill.
00:30And then nothing else happens.
00:31The Senate doesn't move on it.
00:33The story is, again, that the House has passed a bill.
00:35But more interesting this time is the concern in Mississippi has been in-person casinos where in-person sports betting
00:43is done.
00:43They seem to really not want online sports betting.
00:46They think it will cannibalize their business.
00:48Whether that's true or not, you know, is kind of there's some disputing facts out there in terms of cannibalization.
00:53But with this bill, it would actually lower the tax rate of casinos pay on casino games from 8%
01:00to 6%, which is estimated to save those casinos around $45 million a year in taxes, which, you know, it's
01:07not a lot of money for the state legislature, considering how much they make.
01:10But it would be a lot of savings for the state casinos.
01:12So this bill is kind of giving them, throwing them a bone, saying, OK, if we legalize online sports betting,
01:19we'll lower your tax rate and you can save money.
01:21Now, we have to see if the casinos are actually on board with this.
01:24There's about 26 in the state, if I'm not mistaken.
01:27There's a lot of regional casinos specifically that aren't owned by the Caesars of the world, that aren't owned by
01:31the Hard Rocks, don't have those ties to online sports betting apps that have been concerned in the past.
01:36So we'll see if they're, you know, they're going to say, oh, you give me this, then we'll maybe be
01:41open to that.
01:42In the past, the Senate Gaming Commission chair has been very adamant that he will not move towards legalizing online
01:50sports betting unless the Mississippi Gaming Commission recommends it.
01:53So we still have to see if they're going to come on board and say it's a good thing.
01:56In the past, he said, you know, we want tourism in Mississippi.
01:59We want jobs created.
02:00And online sports betting doesn't do that, even though it's projected to raise about $100 million a year.
02:06That's not enough for the state.
02:08It needs to be creating jobs and tourism.
02:10So we know that the Senate's interests really lie with those casinos.
02:14If those casinos get on board with this new bill, which remains to be seen, obviously, then the Senate would
02:19maybe have to get on board.
02:20And then maybe we could really have a real conversation around it actually happening in Mississippi.
02:24But I will say the fact that casinos are getting a bone with this proposal, you know, that makes it
02:29a little bit different in the past where maybe we're inching towards there.
02:32But, you know, you never know of Mississippi.
02:34Heh.
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