Mississippi House Speaker Jason White did not hold back when criticizing his legislative counterparts for neglecting to pass a bill that would legalize mobile sports betting.
“It looks like again this year, the Senate is going to stand in the way of mobile sports [betting]. Folks will continue to illegally gamble and bet on sports online,” White said on Thursday.
“That money will go elsewhere or into illegal dealers’ pockets instead of through the normal channels where our gaming officials could regulate it, and we would at least see the benefit of our operators making that money and Mississippians making it versus it hitting on the illegal market.”
Earlier this week, the Senate Gaming Committee allowed a deadline to kill the Mississippi Mobile Sports Wagering Act, a piece of legislation that was overwhelmingly endorsed on the other end of the capitol. The bill served to allow individuals 21 and up to legally bet on athletic events from phones and other devices outside of the four walls of a brick-and-mortar casino.
On Tuesday, anticipating the Senate would kill the bill, lawmakers in the House gutted two Senate bills and inserted the exact text of the Mississippi Mobile Sports Wagering Act to keep the spirit of the original legislation alive. However, White, a Republican from West, sees what he believes to be the writing on the wall and fully expects the Senate to reject the proposal once again.
Sen. David Blount, a Democrat from Jackson who chairs the Senate Gaming Committee, has given White adequate reason to infer that mobile sports betting is essentially dead in the water. Blount has yet to budge on his stance that mobile sports betting would not benefit the Magnolia State.
Additionally, despite concessions made by the House to meet the chairman’s requests, Blount has not yet been convinced that the state’s existing gaming industry would not take a hit if people could gamble from their mobile devices instead of visiting a casino.
“The reason we have gaming in Mississippi is to encourage investment, to create jobs, and to grow tourism to bring other people from other places to Mississippi. Mobile sports betting doesn’t do that,” Blount said last week. “Mobile sports betting is in a lot of states, and a lot of people want to do that. I respect that, but it is a different product than the product that we already have.”
With existing gaming facilities statewide in mind, the House’s proposal requires mobile sports betting platforms (DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, etc.) to partner with a Mississippi casino before opening up shop. This would allow the state’s casinos to earn a piece of the pie and mitigate any potential financial hemorrhaging. A $6 million “Retail Sports Wagering Protection” fund was also floated to make facilities negatively impacted by mobile sports betting whole.
Revenue generated by mobile sports betting, according to the House’s plan, would be taxed at 12%, with the lion’s share of the proceeds going to road and bridge repairs in all 82 Mississippi counties. This would allow the state to reap the benefits of an untapped money stream.
White contends that “almost every operator” supports mobile sports betting through their casinos, while Blount has argued that the industry is staunchly divided on the issue. Meanwhile, both agree that illegal gaming has far too great of an impact on Mississippi.
Per the American Gaming Association, roughly $64 billion in illegal online bets goes to sportsbooks and bookies nationally. House Gaming chair Rep. Casey Eure, a Republican from Saucier and consistent advocate for mobile sports betting legalization, estimates that Mississippi is responsible for roughly $3 billion of that figure.
The House speaker’s solution, which has been parroted by the executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission, would be to legalize mobile sports betting, creating a regulated but safe avenue for people to do what they’ve been doing in the state unlawfully for years now. Blount’s current fix is to crack down on illegal gaming occurring in the state.
As things stand, the two bills with House mobile sports betting legalization language (SB 2381 and SB 2510) remain afloat for now, but it is not expected that the Senate Gaming Committee will have a sudden change of heart. White is critical of Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, for appointing committee chairmen who may not represent the will of Mississippians.
“It is a key component of my job as speaker and the lieutenant governor’s, in his position, to appoint key folks who are passionate and reflect the will of Mississippians in the way legislation ebbs and flows through the process,” White said. “I can’t give a pass to the guy at the very top. I think it starts at the top and with a priority set. Somebody’s got to be the tip of the spear.”
If mobile sports betting is not enacted into law this year, a years-long battle between the House and Senate will be prolonged due to fundamental differences in opinion by those in committee leadership. The Senate has yet to take legislation legalizing mobile sports betting to a floor vote.
