House sends Mobile Sports Wagering Act to Senate

• Revenues from mobile sports betting are projected near $100 million per year should Mississippi lawmakers pass the legislation. The House wants $50 million of that to go to support PERS.

The “Mississippi Mobile Sports Wagering Act” passed 100 to 11 in the House Wednesday morning, sending it on to the Senate for consideration.

Mobile sports betting would be taxed at 22%, up from 18.5%. The increase would put Mississippi in line with the national average. The measure also reduces the state gaming tax from 8% to 6%, “approximately a $48 million tax cut to the casinos,” said State Rep. Casey Eure (R), the House Gaming Committee chairman. The local tax collected at 4% will stay the same.

“Mobile [sports betting] at 22% is projected to bring in $100 million per year,” Eure told the House, adding that the tax cut to the brick-and-mortar casinos allows them to “reinvest in their properties, give employees pay raises, do things they need to do to keep them up and going to stay competitive in our market.”

The casinos, however, are not required to reinvest the savings; that is optional according to the chairman.

Eure said HB 4074 sends $50 million per year to the Public Employees Retirement System, or PERS, over the next 10 years.

“That’s free money that’s not coming out of our budget now that we’ll get off of mobile sports betting,” Eure said.

Eure went on to tell the House that Tennessee generated $125 million in mobile sports betting last year while Louisiana brought in $102 million.

“Talking to the Gaming Commission and running all of the numbers, it looks like at 22% we’ll be at $100 million a year,” Eure said.

This is the second mobile sports betting bill passed in the House this session. The new effort revises provisions that members expressed concerns with earlier this month.

HB 4074 now heads to the Senate where previous attempts at enacting mobile sports betting have died in recent years.