Mississippi Controversial Online Poker Bill May Return
One of the more controversial pieces of legislation on the state front involving the legalization of online poker sites may ultimately be revived.
A proposed measure by Mississippi lawmakers looked dead in the water earlier in the year. Some of the more contentious aspects of that bill included allowing the state to confiscate accounts that were inactive for at least a year’s period as well as the imprisonment of citizens that were caught playing on unlicensed Web card rooms. A steep licensing fee would also be required to operate in America’s poorest state.
Democratic state Rep. Bobby Moak introduced House Bill 1373 during the 2012 session and was immediately met by staunch opposition from religious groups. The state’s casino sector, on the other hand, supported his bill.
Sid Salter of the Picayune Item suggests Internet gambling legislation will likely return, especially in light of recent financials from the state’s casino industry.
From the Picayune Item:
$536 million annually in various taxes collected on gambling, drinking and smoking. The sale of “sin tax” items also generates additional sales taxes that exceed another $100 million.
Gaming in the last fiscal year generated $277.8 million in taxes in the form of $130.9 million to county and municipal governments and the state's portion of $146.9 million. Overall, gaming provided 3 percent of general fund revenues.
Moak argued that the legislation was necessary to allow Mississippi’s existing gaming industry to have more control of its own destiny and to allow the state to regulate what will already be taking place online — and to tax it.
Regardless of the tension between the strange political bedfellows made by “sin” taxes, Mississippi lawmakers haven’t heard the last of the online gaming issue as certain competition for the state’s existing 30 commercial casinos had gross gaming revenue of $2.39 billion in 2011.
The state’s 2011 gross gaming revenue declined to the lowest level since 1998 — a sign that perhaps online gaming competition regulation is an issue that should get a legislative second look.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
