Mississippi Online Poker Sites
Mississippi is best known for its riverboat and beachside casinos. The state legalized brick and mortar casinos in 1993. They were the first state in the South to legalize commercial gambling and still hold somewhat of a geographical monopoly with the absence of casinos in most states in the South. Mississippi casino boats were required to be on water until Hurricane Katrina destroyed the casino industry in Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay St. Louis in 2005. Current regulations now require casinos to be within 800 feet of the water if they are on the Gulf of Mexico.
Online gambling is not yet legal or regulated in Mississippi. State Representative Bobby Moak tried to change that in 2012. The democrat introduced HB 1372 in 2012 and after that bill failed to pass he reintroduced it under HB 254 the next year. It also failed to get out of committee again in 2013, 2014, and 2015. The bill would have allowed both online poker and casino games.
The bill was titled the Mississippi Lawful Internet Gaming Act. It was introduced in response to the of the Department of Justice’s opinion of the Wire Act in December 2011. The bill was a token effort that drew little support from other Mississippi legislators.
The Mississippi Lawful Internet Gaming Act would have allowed existing casino operators to offer online poker and casino games to anyone physically located in the state at the time of their wager. The bill did not allow for interstate compacts. The bill would have created an online gaming commission. One interesting addition to this bill that has not existed in other states’ bills is that any player that failed to login to their account for one year would forfeit their funds to the state.
Mississippi has several operators that have already been approved for a license in Nevada. These operators include Caesars Entertainment, MGM Resorts, Boyd Gaming and Golden Nugget. This would mean that if online gambling was ever legalized and regulated in Mississippi there would be an easy transition to the new state industry.