Firing back
House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar (R-Senatobia) said that the Mississippi Gaming Commission’s inability to curtail illegal gaming necessitated the creation of his bill since the state was missing out on tax revenue it should’ve been entitled to.
“The purpose of this act is to generate revenue that will be used to replace the revenue that the state of Mississippi is losing as a result of illegal sports betting," Lamar said. "If everybody's being honest with themselves and the public, we should admit that illegal sports betting is rampant in the state of Mississippi. We either need to enforce the current laws or find a way to legalize it where it's taxed appropriately.”
Lamar also filed the bill in response to the stagnation of an online sports betting bill in the Senate.
The Mississippi House sent several sports betting-focused bills to the Senate in recent years, only for them to expire.
Proponents of sports betting in the House suggested that legalization could stir up another $20 million in annual tax funding for the state.
Lamar also said he estimated that an online sports betting market could generate $50 million in annual revenue and noted that Mississippi’s neighbor, Tennessee, makes roughly $140 million in annual sports betting tax revenue.
Sports betting’s failure to blame
Lamar’s bill isn’t focused entirely on raising casino tax rates. It also aims to reveal the reasons why recent sports betting bills faced an early demise in the Senate.
“The goalpost continues to be moved on the other end of the building (the Senate),” Lamar told committee members. "We're either just going to sit here and ignore this rampant epidemic that we have, or we're going to tax it appropriately. We're going to fight it … There needs to be some further light shed on (illegal sports gambling).
One of the reasons proposed by other house members is that small casinos are fearful of losing customers to a legalized market and to the costs associated with building a wagering platform or contracting an established company to handle wagers.
House Minority Leader Robert Johnson (D-Natchez), whose jurisdiction houses a casino, said that smaller casinos would be harshly impacted.
Senate Gaming Committee Chairman David Blount (D-Jackson) also said that a bill to grant additional authority to the state gaming commission already passed the Senate and is pending approval in the House.
Of Mississippi’s current 12 percent tax rate on casino revenue, eight percent goes to the state, and four percent goes to local schools and governments.
Mississippi casinos generated $848.8 million in revenue in 2024, leading to $289.1 million in taxes for the state.
