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The Mississippi House of Representatives voted on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, to legalize online sports betting in the state, again.
Lawmakers passed HB 1581 by an 85–31 vote, setting up another fight with the Senate, where mobile betting bills have repeatedly stalled.
The state’s revenue flowing to other states, supporters of the bill warn
House Gaming Chair Casey Eure, a Republican from Saucier and the bill’s author, told colleagues Mississippians have tried to place around 10 million online wagers since September 2025. He said 81,000 of those bettors crossed into other states to place legal mobile bets. Eure argued Mississippi is losing $40 million to $80 million a year in tax revenue while unregulated betting keeps growing.
Eure framed it as a consumer-protection issue as much as a revenue issue. “Mississippi receives zero tax revenue,” he said, and the state gets “zero oversight” and “zero consumer protection” while problem gambling “goes undetected and unmanaged.”
HB 1581 keeps the casino gate in place
Mobile betting platforms would need to partner with a brick-and-mortar casino before operating in Mississippi. The bill also limits each casino to up to two platform partners. It requires geofencing so apps only accept wagers from users located inside the state.
The House added a major new twist before final passage
A floor amendment by Hank Zuber, a Republican from Ocean Springs, links mobile-betting revenue to the state’s troubled pension plan, the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi. The amendment would allow tax revenue from mobile betting to flow to the pension system as long as PERS’s assumed investment return rate stays at or above its January 1, 2020 level. If that assumption drops below the 2020 mark, the revenue stream would stop.
The same amendment includes a larger trigger. Once the pension board sets the assumed return rate at or above the 2020 benchmark, Mississippi would have to make a one-time $600 million transfer from the state’s Capital Expense Fund into PERS, according to the House debate described by Mississippi Today.
The bill also tries to soften casino concerns about lost foot traffic
The bill would create a $6 million fund, financed by sports betting taxes and replenished each year through 2030, that casinos could tap if revenues fall because of mobile betting. Reports say any money left in that fund would go to PERS, which it said carries about $26 billion in unfunded liabilities.
Opponents attacked the pension tie-in and the budget risk. Democratic Rep. Robert Johnson of Natchez questioned pulling $600 million from the Capital Expense Fund, which Mississippi uses for equipment and infrastructure projects.
Now the bill moves across the Capitol
Senate Gaming Chair David Blount has resisted mobile betting in the past and has warned that “prediction markets” could also undercut the tax upside. With growing attention on platforms such as Kalshi, which argue they operate under federal oversight, a new issue about gambling has already sparked state enforcement fights and court battles elsewhere.
Source: Mississippi Today
