Senate makes history
Lawmakers in Mississippi have made history as the state’s Senate approved a bill to ban online sweepstakes casinos.
first in the US to approve bill to ban online sweepstakes
In approving SB 2510 by a 44-1 vote on Wednesday, Mississippi’s upper chamber became the first legislative body in the US to opt to ban the controversial casinos.
Sports betting legal expert Daniel Wallach took to X with an excerpt from SB 2510, highlighting penalties including $100,000 fines and up to ten years in jail:
Authored by Senator Joey Fillingane, SB 2510 places both online sweepstakes games and sweepstakes casinos on Mississippi’s banned games list.
Clock ticking for sweepstakes
SB 2510 features an amendment to Mississippi law that, should it be passed, is wide-ranging enough in its legal scope to spell the end for the sweepstakes vertical in the state.
The amendment states “any online, interactive, or computerized version of any game as defined in section 75-76-5 or any other game of chance or digital simulation thereof […] is hereby declared to be a gambling device.”
Fillingane’s bill names the offending games as “including, but not limited to, online race books, online sports pools, and online sweepstakes casino-style games.”
the history-making bill that is now heading to the House of Representatives
Promoting play or operating the listed games via digital or interactive platforms will be against Mississippi law via SB 2510, the history-making bill that is now heading to the House of Representatives.
During Wednesday’s Senate hearing, Fillingane said many bettors in the state are clueless they’re breaking the law because the sweepstakes games: “look just like legal online betting sites.”
Hefty penalties
Fillingane’s bill shifts the penalty for sweepstakes operators from misdemeanor to felony. Along with fines capped at $100,000 and prison terms of up to ten years, the state would also have the right to demand forfeiture of “assets, rights, and privileges” belonging to the operator.
The bill’s author added SB 2510 will also “affect illegally operating online sportsbooks and casinos, such as Bovada,” which Tennessee fined $50,000 in October to become the first US state to issue a financial penalty to the firm.
Fillingane said the bill was only going after “online operators, the people who put the platforms up” not bettors mistakenly playing the games.