Mississippi’s Betting Expands, Coastal Casinos Benefit

  • Mississippi’s win rate hits nearly 15% in December
  • The state rakes in $6.2 million in the form of revenue
  • Sports handle tumbles 6% in the last month of 2018

Mississippi’s Gaming Commission posted strong results for December, 2018. The total sports handle fell to $41.8 million, but the revenue increased several fold from November’s results.

Mississippi’s Sports Betting Handle Hits a Snag but Revenue Grows

Mississippi is isolated from sports betting states. Across the state’s border and beyond lie Kentucky and Missouri which have been making tepid attempts to debate the industry – to no success.

In a sense, Mississippi is mired down in a sports betting desert, but this hasn’t stopped the state from continuing and add to its total revenue.

Casinos had a field day in December according to experts, business leaders, backed by data from the Commission.

According to the latest available data, Mississippi has managed to bring in estimated $6.2 million in December alone.

This was a three-fold increase from November’s $1.7 million. Handled did take a modest setback, falling by 6%, but that was offset by the impressive revenue performance.

In publishing the news, the Mississippi Gaming Commission paid attention to several specific trends, notably:

  • An overall increase in the win rates
  • Expansion and development of coastal properties
  • A strong NFL betting season

Win rate in the state increased to nearly 15%, allowing customers to benefit from their wagers the most. The overall rate was higher than most other states across the United States.

Casino Properties Back in the Game

Interestingly enough, coastal casino properties accounted for a larger percent of the total winnings, bringing in $3.8 million in revenue, a high-performance mark for the state, despite fears that the sector may not be sustainable. Coastal revenue in 2018 increased by 4% to $1.23 billion in 2018 from $1.19 billion previously.

Sports betting also produced interesting results in the period, with NFL bets totalling $4.4 million of the total handle staked on sports betting. Customers frequented 23 separate sportsbooks across the entire state to place their wagers.

Sports betting has also been cited as a palliative for the declining river casino businesses with Mississippi’s gamers seeing a new reason to return to these properties and place wagers.

Despite the renewal of interest, river casinos barely marked an uptick, conceding the bulk of new proceedings to the coastal properties.

So far as Mississippi doesn’t advance plans for online betting state-wide, casino properties should expect to turn a decent profit.

Carmen Thompson

Carmen is our residential reporter always on the move and hunting down the latest scoops and rumours to explore. Nothing gets past her keen nose, especially when it comes to some serious Jelly Bean poker tournaments.

$250 Million Casino Proposed for Pope County

It was recently announced that a Mississippi-based casino plans to build a $250 million complex in Pope County, something that has been subject to an almost equal measure of opposition and support. In a letter submitted to the Arkansas Racing Commission by the Gulfside Casino Partnership, outgoing Pope County Judge Jim Ed Gibson declared his support for casino gaming in the region. Gulfside, during their announcement, revealed that it has plans to build a $250 million resort casino if approved by the state’s gaming regulator – this would be done in three phases and would be completed in mid-2020. This comes just a little over a month after voters in Arkansas approved Issue 4 (currently referred to as Amendment 100) which allowed for expanded casino operations at Southland and Oaklawn as well as new casinos in Pope and Jefferson Counties.

According to Terry Green, the co-owner of Gulfside Casino Partnership, the $250 million casino project will be great for the casino will be great for the county as it will create over 1,5000 new jobs and generated millions of dollars in tax revenue once it goes live. This will greatly improve infrastructure and overall quality of life in the state.

So far, most local elected officials have been the biggest opposers of the proposed casino. Last Friday, Pope County Judge-elect Ben Cross who will be taking office today (January 1, 2019) said he was opposed to the casino being built in the county.

“It is with great discouragement and dismay to have learned of the actions of the current county judge in regards to the casino issue. To have a lame duck official act in total disregard to the express wishes of the residents of Pope County is appalling and a complete affront to our representative democracy,” Cross said in a statement.

Support from the Outgoing Mayor

On his last day in office, Russellville Mayor Randy Horton expressed his support for the proposal to build the 600-room hotel and casino in Pope County despite the strong opposition from some the residents as well as an ongoing lawsuit over another official’s support for the project. Randy Horton who lost his reelection bid joins outgoing County Judge Jim Ed Gibson in supporting the Gulfside Casino partnership which happens to have ties to a group that operates a casino on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

During his election campaign, Mr. Horton largely dodged making a statement in regards to where he stood on the issue of the casino amendment. This presents a very interesting dynamic since Richard Harris, who defeated Horton in the election, is opposed to the casino plans. Furthermore, the residents of Pope County largely voted against the constitutional amendment expanding gambling but it was statewide approval that counted in the long run.

As per the terms of the amendment, only approval from a county judge or mayor – depending on the location that the casino developer will choose – is required for the casino application to be approved in Jefferson of Pope County.

 

Kat Orlov

Newcomer Kat is our newcomer poker aficionado whos skill not only lives on the table but flourishes on the site as through her many sources she never fails to be the first to hear of any important or exciting poker news around the world.