- Mississippi's mobile sports betting bid has failed for the third year in a row.
- The Senate blocked both bills despite the House passing them by wide margins.
- Online wagering in the state remains off the table until at least 2027.
JACKSON, Miss. - Mobile sports betting in Mississippi hit another wall in 2026, marking the third year running that the state has failed to move an online wagering bill across the finish line. To place a legal bet in Mississippi, you still have to walk into a casino, leaving the state among a shrinking group of holdouts nationwide.
This session, the House passed two different legislation, both of which were sponsored by Representative Casey Eure. HB 1581 passed 100-11. Neither received a Senate vote. Sen. David Blount held both in the Gaming Committee, claiming that the legislation's casino tax decrease would deplete the state more than any revenue from mobile betting could possibly replenish.
Why The Senate Said No
Blount said that HB 4074's lowering of the casino tax from 8% to 6% would result in an annual deficit of about $50 million for the state. According to realistic online wagering collections estimated by the Tax Foundation to be between $13 and $30 million annually, mobile betting revenue would fall far short of that loss.
There is a market in Mississippi for online gambling. Since the NFL season began, the state has recorded almost 9 million attempts to visit licensed mobile sportsbooks. Instead, a large portion of that traffic ends up on unregulated gambling sites in Mississippi, which adds to the state's estimated $2.38 billion in illegal bets each year.
Mississippi's resistance to mobile betting stands out against a shifting national landscape for USA online gambling. 30 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. have already made their markets fully mobile accessible, while neighboring states like Tennessee and Louisiana have been collecting taxes via regulated platforms for years.
Mississippi bettors will have to wait until at least 2027 for another chance at legalization due to the session's closure. Whether any legislation passes both chambers when lawmakers return will probably depend on how much a casino tax cut costs the state and how much mobile betting can actually bring in.