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SportsTranscript
00:00Finally, we're getting a new sports betting bill in Mississippi, a topic we've talked
00:04about a number of times here on the show, as sports betting has been legal in Mississippi
00:08for many years.
00:09One of the first states to legalize sports betting and actually put it into action.
00:14Now they're trying to get it online.
00:15It's the same conversation we've had for several years, Pat.
00:18It's like I close my eyes and I picture like Robert De Niro in casino, like walking through
00:24and getting these people on the phone saying, nope, nope, we don't want it.
00:27Nope, we don't want it.
00:28I mean, because in the end, the casinos are going to potentially be hurt by having online
00:35betting because then you don't actually have to go to the Beau Revache or anywhere else
00:39to bet on sports.
00:40And look, I don't have any information that that is actually accurate, that these casinos
00:44are going to be blocking it, Pat.
00:46But if I had to guess, that's my conspiracy theory is that the casinos themselves, they
00:51don't stand to benefit from this.
00:53Yeah.
00:54And that's really where it comes down to.
00:55I mean, it did pass back in 2018 to have in-person sports books at the casinos in 2018.
01:00That's one of the first states to legalize.
01:03And since then, the lawmakers have been trying to, or at least some lawmakers have been trying
01:08to introduce online casino and take it statewide.
01:12And yet the appetite from a lot of the casinos in Mississippi are not there.
01:16Of course, the big operators, the Caesars, the MGMs of the world, they're fine with it.
01:21They want online casino, and that's where a lot of this kind of back and forth is.
01:25And to your point, the locally owned smaller companies that are fearful of the competition
01:32and cannibalization of that in-person casino revenue are saying to their local legislators,
01:39no, don't pass this.
01:40We don't want this.
01:41We want to keep all the money in our sports books in person.
01:46And so that's what you're fighting.
01:48This year was kind of a give and go of, is this going to happen?
01:52Another attempt to go online.
01:54The Senate chair of the gaming committee came out and said, unless the Mississippi Gaming
02:00Commission tells me to put in a bill to go online, I'm not going to do it.
02:04And the Gaming Commission said, well, we don't say whether or not to do bills.
02:07So the Senate was kind of just not going to do anything.
02:11We do have a house bill that was introduced at the beginning of the session to take it
02:14online.
02:16That will be heard in the house gaming committee.
02:19So it could pass the house.
02:20Does it pass the Senate?
02:21If it passes the house, again, it's all the legislative process.
02:26That's why we watch.
02:27That's why I watch it.
02:28So everybody that listens here or reads LSR can find out what's happening.
02:33It hasn't passed since 2018.
02:35As we've seen over and over again, this online expansion bill, try to get through, is 2025
02:41any different?
02:42Who knows?
02:43I mean, we look at the Southeast and what's happening.
02:46Alabama has been trying for years to pass just a lottery bill and they can't.
02:50Georgia has been trying to pass sports betting for years, can't.
02:55So the Southeast, you've got that little population of adamantly morally against casinos.
03:03So I think even though Mississippi has a great gambling culture with all their riverboat
03:07casinos, I don't know if the online expansion can garner enough momentum to break through
03:14that this year.
03:15So we're going to watch it carefully and let you know as it develops, Craig.