Sweepstakes casinos live on in Mississippi, as the state’s House of Representatives did not agree to the bill the Senate sent over in February that would have banned the form of online casino gambling. More specifically, the House did pass SB 2510, but only after amending it to legalize mobile sports betting. And therein lay the problem.
it went back to the Senate, where the amendment was rejected
SB 2510 passed easily in the Senate just a couple months ago, but in the House, House Gaming Committee Chairman Rep. Casey Eure inserted the sports betting portion, essentially trying to resurrect a mobile sports betting bill he had previously introduced. Because the bill was amended, it went back to the Senate, where the amendment was rejected.
It wasn’t quite over, though, as a conference committee was convened to give it one last shot. In a conference committee, select members of each chamber get together to try to hammer out a compromise bill. The House wants mobile sports betting for revenue purposes – the state already has retail casinos and sportsbooks – but the Senate is against it for fear of hurting retail casinos.
In the end, the members of the conference committee could not reconcile their differing viewpoints and figure something out in time for the conference report filing deadline of March 31.
So for now, sweepstakes casinos live on in the Magnolia State. They could still be banned by the state gaming regulator, something that has happened in other states, but until that happens, they are available to gamblers in Mississippi.
