Several bills concerning a potential lottery and sports betting have been considered by lawmakers in the 2017 session.
The original Senate state lottery bill, SB2504 didn’t make it too far, dying in committee before the end of January. But the House had their own version to push a little further.
HB804 was a crafty attempt by Rep. Mark Baker to turn one bill, into another in hopes of implementing a lottery. The original text of HB804 was aimed at requiring Whitfield to provide a list of psychiatrists and psychologists equip to conduct mental health examinations.
The crafty part was that the text of the bill was later modified to establish a Mississippi Lottery system. Good news, your lawmakers do read the text of bills and decided to let it die on the calendar.
There were still two bills left that would address the topic of sports gambling and both survived the House and Senate Floor.
Senate Bill 2896 passed 44-8 and was sent to the House, while it’s counterpart HB967 passed 92-21 on Thursday.
Each bill would require sports betting agencies to go through background checks to confirm that they can pay back winners.
