Mississippi Sports Betting Increases By 402% In July
Mississippi continues to see sports betting activity increase, with July’s total handle up more than four times over June’s handle. But it continues to lag behind the 2019 numbers and it still has a restrictive in-casino requirement to place mobile bets.
The state on Tuesday reported $7,916,665 in total wagers for July, a 402.4% increase over June’s $1,575,859 total handle, which was up 566.3% from May’s handle. But year over year, July’s total handle was down 40.8% from July 2019’s $13,383,383.
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But there was a big jump on the revenue front for the state. Mississippi had taxable revenue of $1,335,762 in July, up from June’s loss of $62,231 on sports betting. The July revenue figure, according to figures released by the Mississippi Gaming Commission, was also a 26.8% increase over July 2019’s $1,053,776.
Mississippi Sports Betting Handle, July vs. June
| July | June | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central Casinos | $1.028M | $263K | Up 290.9% |
| Coastal Casinos | $4.981M | $898K | Up 454.7% |
| Northern Casinos | $1.907M | $414K | Up 360.6% |
| Total | $7.917M | $1.576M | Up 402.4% |
Casinos Reopen, Mobile Restriction Remains
Mississippi has 26 commercial casinos — 13 on land and 13 on riverboats — and sports bettors must place online wagers inside one of the commercial casinos. Those casinos were closed from mid-March through much of May because of the coronavirus pandemic, with some reopening on May 21 at half capacity.
The limited capacity obviously hurts the bottom line, but not as much as the restriction on mobile sports betting. States with strong mobile markets like New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Indiana received some revenue during the pandemic and saw it increase when sports and casinos reopened.
The sport of choice to bet on in Mississippi in July was baseball as $3,392,137 was wagered. It was followed by “other” sports at $2,411,531, basketball at $1,059,339 and parlay bets at $1,048,560.
Mississippi Year-Over-Year Sports Betting Handle
| July ’20 | July ‘19 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central Casinos | $1.028M | $1.324M | Down 22.4% |
| Coastal Casinos | $4.981M | $8.656M | Down 42.5% |
| Northern Casinos | $1.907M | $3.404M | Down 44% |
| Total | $7.917M | $13.383M | Down 40.8% |
Mississippi Casino Numbers
Mississippi’s coastal casinos, where about half of the state’s casinos exist, saw the most sports betting action with $4,981,243 in handle and $816,346 in revenue. Those in the central part of the state had $1,028,001 in handle and $180,495 in revenue. In the north, casinos had $1,907,420 in handle and $338,920 in revenue.
The state’s slots drop in July was $1.871 billion, an increase of 10.1% from June’s $1.7 billion, but it was a slight decrease of 2.8% from July 2019’s $1.924 billion.
The July table games drop of $160.4 million was up 18.2% from June’s $135.7 million. It was just 1.3% below July 2019’s $162.5 million.
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