【melbet review】Mississippi online sports betting bill dies amid legislative differences

Senate Bill 2510 (SB 2510), which was initially intended to ban sweepstakes casinos, was the focus of heated debate and amendments throughout the legislative process.

The bill passed the Mississippi Senate in February with a unanimous vote, but subsequent changes made by the Mississippi House of Representatives in March, which included the addition of online sports betting, led to significant conflict between the two chambers.

The legislation’s demise was confirmed Monday night (31 March), when the Mississippi legislature’s website reported that the bill had failed to make it out of the conference committee.

The committee had been tasked with resolving disagreements between the House and Senate versions of the measure.

This effectively means that both the proposed ban on sweepstakes casinos and the push for statewide online sports betting are no longer viable for this year’s legislative session.

The crux of the conflict lies in the Senate’s longstanding concerns about the potential impact of online gambling on Mississippi’s brick-and-mortar casino industry.

While the House had proposed allowing statewide online sports betting as part of SB 2510, the Senate rejected the changes.

For now, it appears that the push to legalise online sports betting in Mississippi will have to wait until the next legislative session in 2026.

This marks another setback for proponents of online gambling in the state, who had hoped that 2025 would be the year that legal sports betting expanded beyond the state’s casinos to include online platforms.

Continued attempts lead to the same result

The legislative struggle over online sports betting has been ongoing in Mississippi for several years, with previous attempts failing to gain traction.

Lawmakers in the Senate have consistently expressed concerns that legalising online sports betting could harm the state’s land-based casinos, which are a significant source of revenue and employment.

In addition to the online sports betting issue, SB 2510 also sought to address the growing concern over sweepstakes casinos, a form of online gambling that has recently grown in prevalence in states across the US.

Such operators offer games that resemble traditional casino games, but which can be played for free and work under a legal structure that avoids certain gambling-specific state regulations.

The proposed bill would have banned sweepstakes casinos in Mississippi, but this effort is now effectively stalled as well.

While the bill’s failure means there will be no statutory ban or criminal penalties for operating sweepstakes casinos in Mississippi this year, regulators could still take action against such businesses.

Such measures have been taken in other states, including the issuance of cease-and-desist orders to operators.

Mississippi lawmakers are scheduled to adjourn on 6 April, meaning there is little time left for further action on these issues during the current legislative session.

As of now, sports betting in the state remains limited to physical casinos.

The failure of SB 2510 represents a continuation of Mississippi’s struggle to balance the regulation of emerging forms of gambling with the interests of its traditional casino industry.

With the next legislative session scheduled for 2026, it’s likely that the debate over both online sports betting and sweepstakes casinos will resume in earnest next year.