Mississippi's Unique Path in Legalizing Sports Betting
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SportsTranscript
00:00Of all of the states to have legalized sports betting, I think Mississippi is one of the
00:07most peculiar of all, because they were first on board getting sports betting and they have
00:13it in the casinos there, you know, on the river and all of that.
00:17And it was like a huge deal at the time.
00:20And then several years later, for people who don't know, if you go to Mississippi, yes,
00:24you could bet on sports, but you have to be there in the casino in person.
00:27I mean, if I'm not mistaken, I think this is the only state or one of the only states
00:31to have this happen. It's just so bizarre to me that they could legalize sports betting,
00:36basically saying it's OK, but they can't get this in order to have you be able to bet on
00:41your phone, on the apps and everything else.
00:43If you would have told me this three years ago, Pat, I would have been shocked.
00:46I would have said they would have been first.
00:48I mean, really, you know, you're right.
00:50They were one of the first states to legalize sports betting in casinos, which makes sense.
00:55They've got a pretty rich gambling history, but it's almost like they missed the boat on
01:00the statewide online sports betting, you know, that was the best time to do that right
01:05when they did it from the get go, because now we're sitting here six years later.
01:09They launched sports betting in 2018, but you can't bet outside of casino properties.
01:14And, you know, last year we had a legislator come out.
01:18We've had it every year pretty much where a legislator proposes online sports betting
01:24and it kind of just doesn't go anywhere.
01:27And last year they turned it one of these bills into a study and the legislators met all
01:32last fall. I think it was a couple four times that they came together and talked about the
01:36big issues. What was going to happen?
01:38What do we need to do? And that informed Rep Casey, yours bill this year.
01:43And he came in and it cruised through the House.
01:46You know, I think it was about 80, 85 percent of legislators.
01:50I don't know that right off the top of my head.
01:52So don't quote me with that. But a huge margin of victory in the House went to the
01:57Senate. They stripped everything out of the bill and they went to conference committee
02:03to try to work out whatever was the issue for the Senate.
02:06And it died because of a deadline that they didn't meet on Monday.
02:11And so online sports betting yet again is dead in Mississippi.
02:16So they'll have to wait at least another year unless, you know, I've had one source
02:21suggest that there's a chance a lawmaker will go ahead and amend an existing bill
02:26that's still alive to include sports, online sports betting.
02:30And that would be one way they could still get it done.
02:32But, you know, we're working on a very short time frame.
02:34They adjourn on May 5th, which it's May 1st already somehow.
02:39And so they're running very short on time.
02:41And, you know, they're going to be at least seven years basically from launch of our
02:46in-person sports betting to online sports betting.
02:48And that's if they can all get on the same page next year, which, again, has been a huge
02:52problem the last couple of years.