Through the 2024 NFL season, no state debating access to mobile sports gambling saw more consumers looking for legal options than Mississippi. Per GeoComply, Mississippi saw nearly 10 million checks for legal online sportsbooks in five months. That was a 77% year-over-year increase and a higher volume than Texas, Nebraska, and Minnesota combined.
While sports gambling is legal in Mississippi, it can only be done at a brick-and-mortar casino. Clearly, that is not good enough for Mississippians. Isn't it ironic how the Hospitality State remains inhospitable to mobile gaming?
Hopefully, a reworked bill being prepared by the House's Gaming Committee will turn the tide and bring mobile gaming to Mississippi.
Same Old Lines
Led by chair Representative Casey Eure, the House Gaming Committee approved a reworked Mobile Sports Wagering Act that should address issues brought forward by the Senate in the last session. The act should move through the House easily, but once it gets to the Senate all bets are off.
The chair of the State Senate's Gaming Committee David Blount continues to hold a firm line that online betting is not beneficial to Mississippi, stating:
"The reason we have gaming in the state is for tourism, to bring new people to the state, to encourage investment in the form of hotels and amenities to grow the economy, and to support the jobs of the tens of thousands of people. All of that’s a good thing. I don’t want to endanger that. Mobile sports betting doesn’t do any of that. Mobile sports betting does not drive tourism. It does not drive any economic investment in our state."
I'm sure the Senator knows that tax revenues can also be used to invest and grow the state's economy, but perhaps he isn't aware that his stance is costing his state tax dollars.
Mississippi's Dying Sports Gambling Market
While state Senators like Blount continue to clutch pearls over the impacts mobile gaming could have on the casino industry, they're missing that Mississippi's sports gambling industry is already crumbling beneath them.
In 2023, Mississippi's Gaming Commission reported that sports wagering had generated $49 million in taxable revenue; with a 3% tax on that revenue the state collected $1.47 million in taxes. In 2024 sports wagering generated only $42 million in taxable revenue, a 14% year-over-year drop, collecting only $1.26 million.
GeoComply believes Mississippi could generate roughly $30.3 million in taxable revenue on sports gambling with legal mobile gaming. That estimate is based on a 15% tax rate; the current bill being reworked by the Mississippi House Gaming Committee to legalize mobile gaming proposes a maximum tax rate of 8%, which would return around $16 million in taxes, which is still quadruple what the state collects for all gaming.
There is no doubt that Mississippi's sports gambling industry is shrinking due to so many citizens looking for online mobile options and likely finding them. The "have app, will travel" phenomenon was key in getting other states to realize the loss of income by not legalizing sports gambling.
Ideally, for Mississippi, their lawmakers will wake up and give them what they want; access to online sportsbooks.
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