The state has a long history with gambling and many a film has romanticized the riverboat casinos that paddle up and down the Mississippi, but the Civil War put an end to the popular river-based casinos.
It was not until 1990 that Mississippi once again began to enjoy legalized gaming and has since become famous for a plethora of cruise vessel floating casinos down along the Gulf of Mexico.
Gaming in the state is regulated by the Mississippi Gaming Commission and is taxed to ensure some of the profits are flowed back into important state programs such as housing, education and health care. The casinos are themselves are a mix of riverboats, state-authorized commercial land-based casinos, and establishments on Native American soil. All of this has helped the region become one of the top gambling destinations in America.
Sports betting has been fully legalized, but at this juncture only bets that are placed in person are able to be accepted. The first wagers taken on sports were at two MGM Resorts on August 1, 2018. At the time of writing, 22 casinos have now taken a sports bet in the Magnolia State.
Fans of DFS are also able to celebrate as access to fantasy leagues was fully legalized in 2017.
However, despite the interest in sports betting, fans of the horses and greyhound are sadly out of luck because Mississippi has no horse racing venues to visit.
At present, there is no state lottery in operation, but thanks to the creation of the Mississippi Lottery Corp. after the state legislature authorized the creation of a lottery scratch card tickets could be on by the fall, with access to the big money games such as Mega Millions and the national Powerball available soon after.
Although every care has been taken into providing the information for this map, state law can often change and this map is how we at GamingUSA understand the gambling law in each state to be as of June 2nd 2023
