Mississippi's Online Sports Betting, Anti-Sweepstakes Bill Dead

This year's project to legislate statewide online sports betting in Mississippi looks dead, and dragged down in addition to it is an attempt to ban sweepstakes casinos in the Magnolia State via legislation.


Monday was the deadline for conference committee reports on basic bills and constitutional changes to be filed in Jackson.


This consisted of a report for S.B. 2510, which was an anti-online gaming expense (sweepstakes consisted of) when it passed the Senate 51-0 in February.


However, that was before the Mississippi House of Representatives made some tweaks to the costs in March, including by shoehorning statewide online sports wagering into the legislation.


The changes were declined by the Senate and triggered the development of a conference committee recently.


It appears legislators on the conference committee were ultimately not able to reach a compromise on S.B. 2510 and file a report, since the state legislature's site stated Monday night that the step was dead.


See you in 2026


As a result, it looks like both a sweepstakes casino ban and statewide online sports wagering in Mississippi through legislation might need to wait till next year.


Yet another failed effort to legislate statewide online sports betting in Mississippi highlights the sticking around concerns that lawmakers in the Senate have about licensing any type of online gaming that might potentially cannibalize the service of the state's brick-and-mortar casinos.


Those concerns apparently outweighed the hazard positioned by sweepstakes gambling establishments that have spread out across the U.S., triggering action by lawmakers and regulators seeking to check the more recent kind of online gaming.


Appears like Mississippi's last, best chance at legalizing statewide online this year is dead, in addition to the proposed restriction on sweepstakes casinos to which House legislators attempted to connect OSB: pic.twitter.com/DWLgRJxxew


Mississippi might still act versus sweeps operators as regulators in other states have actually done, such as by issuing cease-and-desist letters. But a specific, statutory restriction and criminal penalties for breaching that restriction looks like they are off the table for now. The Mississippi legislature is arranged to adjourn on April 6.