The Mississippi Gaming Commission has announced a month-over-month decline in sports betting handle, with the state taking $17.7 million in wagers for July 2023.
This was down 13.2% from June 2023, where the Magnolia state reported handle of $20.4 million. Many states have experienced similar trends, with consecutive months of handle decline owing to the lack of premium sporting fixtures in the United States. Year-over-year handle was down 3.3% from $18.3 million in July 2022.
Total wagers on American football between the three reporting regions of MS struggled to hit the $100,000 mark for July. Mississippi sports betting operators will be hoping that with the start of the NFL season nearing, interest in the sporting calendar starts to ramp up and handle will start to head back in the right direction.
Whereas handle declined, taxable revenue rose on a month-over-month basis, and stayed static on a year-over-year basis. Taxable receipts for both July 2023 and 2022 came in at $2.5 million, which represented a 38.9% increase month-over-month. This was owing to the increased hold percentage in July, with MS casinos achieving 13.9% in July compared to 9.0% in June.
Mississippi’s sports betting faced a year-over-year decline in revenue for 2022. This has largely been attributed to the legalization of both retail and mobile sports betting in neighboring state Louisiana.
Mississippi Gov. Timothy Reeves signed HB 606 into law on 28 March, 2023 which agreed to set up a tax force to examine mobile/online sports betting. The recommendations of the task force, upon completion, will be made public. For now, online sports betting does not seem imminent.