Mississippi: Regulatory task force weighs mobile sports betting legalization pros and cons

Mississippi’s Mobile-Online Sports Betting Task Force met on Tuesday to discuss the potential regulation of internet sports wagering in the state. The Mississippi legislature passed a bill earlier this year, creating the 13-member group, with the goal to better understand the potential ramifications of legalizing the vertical. The task force has been assigned to produce a report to better inform legislators when mobile wagering legislation is filed in 2024. 

The report is due to the legislature by December 15th, and the task force will meet at least once more before the deadline. Representative Casey Eure said at Tuesday's meeting that he intends to introduce a mobile wagering bill in the upcoming legislative session, which begins on January 2nd. 

“I’ve already publicly said that I will have a bill that I will introduce," said Eure. "Now, I can’t sit here and tell you for sure that it’s gonna pass the House and I’ll be able to send it to the Senate, but I wanted everybody to know where I stood from day one."

Mississippi was one of the first states to legalize sports betting after the state repealed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in 2018. However, sports bettors in the state remain confined to retail sportsbooks. Sports betting apps are available for customers to use but only inside a retail venue, and so far only BetMGM has taken up the opportunity.

Penn and DraftKings highlight pros and cons of legalizing sports betting

On Tuesday, casino representatives argued that if mobile sports betting is legalized in Mississippi, the licenses should be tied to their properties. Some casino representatives were also concerned that mobile betting might harm the retail sports betting business. 

Representatives from Penn Entertainment, which is set to launch ESPN BET in the near future, and national leader DraftKings also addressed the task force. Their presentations focused on the consumer protections available in a legal market and the potential tax revenue increase if Mississippi were to legalize online sports betting. 

Jason Tosches, Penn Entertainment’s Director of Public Affairs and Government Relations, disputed that mobile sports betting would hurt brick-and-mortar casinos. "We believe any notion that online sports betting would somehow negatively impact land-based casinos, lead to property closures or damage the state’s existing regulatory framework is simply false,” Tosches said.

“New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Indiana, and Iowa all had greater slot and table game revenue last year than in 2019, and these are among the first movers that authorized online sports betting between three and five years ago," he added.

Data reveals betting appetite in Mississippi

John Pappas, GeoComply’s Senior Vice President of Government and Public Affairs, shared data with the task force that revealed the growing interest in Mississippi for legal sports betting platforms. 

The data revealed 1.72 million geolocation checks in Mississippi since the beginning of the 2023 college football season. As per reports, the checks represent Mississippians accessing legal sportsbooks in other states, but getting blocked from wagering on those platforms. The attempts were conducted by over 64,000 individual users. 

GeoComply further found that 1,702 players were geolocated in Mississippi and then traveled across state lines to Tennessee to access their mobile sportsbook accounts. Another 1,200 players did the same thing, except that they traveled to Louisiana.

Mississippians, according to Pappas, want legal mobile sportsbooks in their state and are currently betting in other states or on illegal, offshore sites. The task force will meet again on November 13th, and during that meeting, it is expected to discuss what a 2024 mobile sports betting bill may look like.