The Mississippi house amended two senate bills in order to include legal sports betting along with a sweepstakes ban. Those bills are now back in the senate.
When the bills left the senate, neither was about legalising digital sports betting. But both passed the full house on Tuesday (11 March) and bill sponsor Casey Eure says it’s time to negotiate.
One of the bills originally addressed tidelands. The other addressed fines for platforms operating illegally in the state. Language from a dead house digital wagering bill was put into the tidelands bill.
Retail betting has been legal in Mississippi’s casinos since 2018, but attempts since then to add the type of mobile betting available in other states have been rebuffed.
“It’s a possibility” that tidelands will not get addressed this year if the senate fails to take up mobile sports betting, Eure said, according to the Clarion-Ledger. “But the house’s position is on mobile sports betting. We’re concerned about tidelands, but at this..