Mississippi Gaming Chair Shares Plans for Mobile Sports Betting Bill for 2022

• MS House Gaming Committee Chair Crafting a Mobile Betting App Bill for 2022
• Bill will Call for Tethering, Preventing Mobile Sportsbooks from Standalone Launches 
• Plans are For Bill to be Ready for House Gaming Committee by Jan. 1, 2022

MS House Gaming Committee Chair Crafting a Mobile Betting App Bill for 2022

It’s an ongoing battle in Mississippi, whether residents should have access to mobile sports betting from anywhere in the state or if that would cause a competitive disadvantage to the retail casinos that already exist there.

But ignoring a technology that would make wagering easier for Hospitality State bettors might not be the best big picture move for Mississippi, so lawmakers have been searching for a way to make both sides happy.

That answer could come in the form of the proposed bill being planned by Casey Eure, the chair of the House Gaming Committee, who recently told Biloxi TV station WLOX that he is currently working on legislation to give casinos access to mobile sports betting apps.

Rep. Eure says his goal is to “make sure we can protect our bricks and mortar,” meaning the existing 36 casinos and pari-mutuel facilities which are spread out across 13 cities throughout Mississippi, businesses that have already invested millions of dollars creating a lucrative market.

The solution for making everyone happy, it would seem, is a concept called ‘tethering.’

Bill will Call for Tethering, Preventing Mobile Sportsbooks from Standalone Launches

To prevent online sportsbooks from launching independently as direct competitors to existing casinos, the legislation that Rep. Eure has in mind would require any mobile sportsbook in Mississippi to partner up with a land-based casino, a concept known as ‘tethering.’

It turns out versions of those partnerships already exist in the Magnolia State, with most of the big US sports betting names we are familiar with – BetMGM, Caesars Sportsbook, DraftKings Sportsbook, FanDuel Sportsbook – already running retail books in that state.

Except those apps are typically geofenced so that they can only be used by those onsite at the casinos, but the new law could allow bettors to place wagers from anywhere in the state so long as that sportsbook is tethered to an existing retail casino.

Bringing that type of mobile betting to Mississippi would allow it to better compete with some of its neighbors like Tennessee, who made mobile sports betting legal back in November 2020.’

Whatever changes in Mississippi mobile sports betting might take place, don’t expect them to happen until 2022.

Plans are For Bill to be Ready for House Gaming Committee by Jan. 1, 2022

According to Rep. Eure, his plans are “to pass something out of my committee,” meaning to bring a bill to his House Gaming Committee, by Jan. 1, 2022.

That would allow just a few days for debate since the Mississippi legislature begins its 2022 legislative session on Jan. 4 with plans to adjourn on April 3, 2022.

Whatever the timeline, Rep. Eure wants to make sure his bill takes all parties into account, saying:

When we pass mobile sports betting, we’ll do it the right way.

As Mississippi’s mobile sports betting market continues to evolve, keep checking back for the latest news and updates.