Mississippi Online Sports Betting Heading For Familiar Showdown

• The Mississippi Senate did not confer with House changes made to a Senate-approved bill to include online sports betting
• The bill now heads to a conference committee between Senate and House representatives
• Mississippi’s online sports betting chances died in a similar fashion in 2024

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Barring a miracle, Mississippi online sports betting legislation is heading to a grim end.

In an unsurprising move, the Mississippi Senate did not concur with House of Representative changes made to a Senate-approved bill that prohibits sweepstakes gaming in the state. House of Representative members added language to SB 2510 to also include the legalization of online sports betting, which was denied by the Senate.

The bill now heads to a conference committee between House and Senate representatives to see if any common ground remains for the legislation.

Mississippi Online Sports Betting Ended in Similar Fashion to 2024

Mississippi Senators Joey Fillingane (R-41), Mike Thompson (R-48), and David Blount (D-29) will serve on conference committee. The three Senators will meet with members of the House of Representatives to negotiate any potential common ground to approve the legislation.

Fillingane is the principal author of the bill.

Blount, who is the chair of the Senate Gaming Committee, has been a vocal opponent of legalized Mississippi online sports betting. He never called the House approved online sports betting bill to his committee this session, effectively blocking the legislation.

Fear of online sports betting cannibalization, and its effect on revenues for brick-and-mortar casinos in the state, led to stalled discussions in the Senate.

The Senate never considered Rep. Casey Eure’s (R-116) original online sports betting bill, HB 1302, forcing the House Gaming Committee to include its language in two Senate bills to ensure discussions continued this session.

SB 2510 will be discussed in the conference committee. The second, SB 2381, is effectively dead.

Mississippi’s sports betting fate ended in a similar fashion in 2024. A bill was approved by the House by a 97-14 vote in February 2024, but was not supported by the Senate. The legislation was eventually approved by the Senate, but stripped of all sports betting language. The House did not concur with the changes made to the bill and agreed to a conference committee to see if any common ground could be found to approve the bill.

Neither chamber could agree on a compromise, and the bill stalled out near the end of the state’s session.

Mississippi Online Sports Betting Framework

Eure has been the driving force in the House for online sports betting over the last two years. He made significant changes to his bill this year to appease both Senate and Mississippi retail casino concerns after the issued failed in 2024.

His bill earmarks $6 million annually to a new Retail Sports Wagering Protection Fund. The fund will allow casinos who choose to not partner with an online sports betting operators to apply for a portion of revenue from the fund. The Retail Sports Wagering Protection Fund will receive $6 million annually through 2030.

Any additional revenue over the $6 million threshold will be placed in the state’s road and bridge repair fund.

His 2025 bill also increased the number of potential online sports betting partners for the state’s 26 commercial dockside and land-based casinos from one to two.