Lawmakers in Mississippi are to consider a new bill that seeks to legalize online sports betting in the US state.
Introduced by Senator Scott DeLane, Senate Bill 2396 sets out plans to amend existing laws in the state and permit wagering online and via mobile.
Mississippi opened its regulated sports wagering market in August 2018, but players are currently limited to land-based betting at licensed casinos.
Language in SB 2396 states that players would be permitted to wager on sports via an internet platform authorized and licensed by the Mississippi Gaming Commission.
Operators would be limited to running one online sports betting platform per license.
The bill did not include details in terms of the number of licenses that would be awarded, nor how much these permits would cost or at what rate operators would have to pay tax.
However, it did state that if approved, the amendment would come into effect from July 1 this year.
Mississippi last year considered a similar bill put forward by Representative Cedric Burnett, but this did not progress past the House of Representatives and died in Committee.
Burnett also previously filed HB1481 in Mississippi’s 2019 legislative session, with a companion bill in the state Senate. However each bill died without receiving a Committee hearing.
The most recently set of monthly figures for the state’s sports betting market showed revenue more than doubled year-on-year, despite a slight decline in handle.
Revenue for November amounted to $8.1m, which was 113.2% more than $3.8m in the same month in 2019, but player spending on sports betting slipped 3.0% year-on-year to $54.4m.