Mississippi Sports Betting

Sports betting remains limited to in-person wagers placed on the premises of licensed casinos. Despite advancing mobile sports betting bills for three consecutive years, Mississippi lawmakers have failed to enact statewide online wagering.

In the 2025 legislative session, HB 1302 (Rep. Casey Eure) — the Mississippi Mobile Sports Wagering Act — passed the House 88-10 on February 3, 2025. The bill would have tethered mobile wagering to existing casino licensees (each casino could partner with up to two platforms), imposed a 12% tax on gross revenue, required geofencing and age verification, prohibited credit card deposits, and established a $6 million Retail Sports Wagering Protection Fund for five years to offset potential brick-and-mortar revenue loss. The bill was transmitted to the Senate, referred to the Senate Gaming Committee — chaired by mobile sports betting opponent Sen. David Blount — and died in committee on March 4, 2025, repeating the same outcome as 2024.

In the 2026 regular session, the House passed two successive mobile sports betting bills. HB 1581 passed 85-31 on February 4, 2026, with the addition of a provision directing mobile betting tax revenue to the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) as long as its assumed investment return rate holds at or above its January 1, 2020 level. When HB 1581 stalled in the Senate, Rep. Eure introduced HB 4074, which passed 100-11 on March 1, 2026, with a higher proposed 22% tax on online sports betting revenue, a reduction of the brick-and-mortar casino gross revenue tax from 8% to 6% (valued at approximately $48 million for operators), and a $50 million annual PERS allocation for 10 years. Neither bill received a Senate committee vote before the March 3 deadline; both died, ending mobile sports betting prospects for 2026. This was the third consecutive legislative session in which the Mississippi House passed a mobile sports betting bill and the Senate declined to act. Advocates note that Mississippi is losing tens of millions in annual tax revenue to neighboring Tennessee and Louisiana.

Very quietly, Mississippi also revised its daily fantasy sports bill to remove any language that was problematic for sports betting going forward, making the process more seamless once the U.S Supreme Court made its decision to abolish PASPA in May 2018. In turn, Mississippi became the fourth state with active legal sports betting.

As written, current laws limit gambling to those physically present in a licensed casino. Electronic sports betting is permitted, but only if conducted on-site. No mobile or online wagering can take place off the grounds of a casino. During the 2020 legislative session, two bills to authorize online sports were introduced to the Senate, and in September 2021 online sports betting launched, but it is limited to bets placed while at a casino. Players can register from anywhere, but are only allowed to place bets while on a licensed casino property.