Mississippi Cell Sports activities Betting Would Support Casinos With Tax Lower

• Mississippi is inching nearer to legalizing on-line sports activities betting
• Laws to authorize cellular sports activities bets features a tax break for casinos
• Eure’s Mississippi sports activities betting laws proposes a 22% state tax on cellular sportsbook income

Mississippi was one of many first states to get authorized sports activities betting up and operating. The state’s casinos started taking bets on skilled and school sports activities in August 2018, simply three months after the US Supreme Court docket overturned the federal legislation that had restricted single-game wagering to Nevada.

A concrete walkway alongside the Biloxi waterfront is pictured in 2022 with the Margaritaville Resort and Golden Nugget Resort & On line casino within the distance. Laws to carry on-line sports activities betting to Mississippi has handed the state Home of Representatives. (Picture: Getty)

Nearly eight years after retail sports activities betting went dwell, Mississippi is now within the minority in not permitting on-line wagering. Mississippi’s sports activities betting legislation is designed to guard the state’s riverboats by forcing bettors to bodily patronize a property make a wager.

Critics say the in-person betting requirement has hampered income and led to diminished tax income from sports activities betting. There are additionally claims that the retail sportsbook-only legislation helps offshore, unregulated sportsbooks, the place client protections don’t exist.

For one more yr in a row, Mississippi Rep. Casey Eure (R-Harrison) is main laws to carry sports activities betting on-line. The chair of the Home Gaming Committee, Eure, has been devoted to increasing Mississippi sportsbooks to the web.

On line casino Safety

New for the 2026 legislative session is Eure searching for to hedge his wager on Mississippi cellular sports activities betting by together with a provision that might scale back opposition.

With many lawmakers of the assumption that in-person sports activities betting helps casinos, as some bettors determine play a desk sport, slot machine, or buy meals or a beverage whereas stopping by the on line casino, Eure’s Home Invoice 4074 would safeguard the state’s 25 business gaming services by offering them a tax lower.

HB4074, which cleared the Mississippi Home of Representatives final week with a 100-11 vote, would cut back the efficient tax price on every on line casino’s gross gaming income from 8% to six%, efficient July 1, 2026. The state tax price on income from in-person sports activities betting could be slashed from 18.5% to simply 3.5%.

Eure says the retail on line casino tax lower would ship a projected $48 million in on line casino income financial savings yearly. That will assist the smaller casinos which have beforehand opposed cellular sports activities betting on issues that they wouldn’t land one of many big-name partnerships like DraftKings and FanDuel.

HB4074 would permit every on line casino in Mississippi to associate with no multiple on-line sportsbook. 

Income Projection

Eure’s Mississippi sports activities betting laws proposes a 22% state tax on cellular sportsbook income.

At 22%, cellular sports activities betting is projected to usher in $100 million a yr [for the state],” Eure advised the Home earlier than final week’s vote.

The casinos’ retail tax financial savings, he causes, would permit the properties to reinvest of their properties, present workers with raises, and stay aggressive with cellular sportsbooks. The laws, nonetheless, would permit the casinos to make use of the tax financial savings as they want.   

HB4074 has been transmitted to the Mississippi Senate and is awaiting a committee project.