Although they have previously decided against passing legislation, the Mississippi House Gaming Committee has decided to take a closer look at entering into the online gaming world with a study that will examine online gaming and sports betting.
According to the Biloxi-Gulfport Sun Herald’s Mary Perez, the chairman of that committee, Richard Bennett (R-Long Beach) has commissioned the study that will meet for the first time next month. While he is personally against passing any legislation that would endorse either activity, Bennett is reportedly looking for more information on the subject. “I’m looking for an unbiased study,” he stated to Perez, and is looking for something that is more thorough than previous looks at the situation have been.
Perez reports that the original plan for the study was strictly looking at internet gaming. After discussion with other legislators, however, Bennett decided to expand the committee’s purpose to also look into moving into sports betting. The chairman of the committee is Allen Godfrey, the executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission, who is expecting to be very thorough in his group’s analysis.
“Our most important role in this task force will be advisory, with data and analysis about internet gambling,” he said to Perez. The group will take a look at the three states that are currently offering online gaming and/or poker – Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey – and how their systems are operating. In particular, the group will be looking at geolocation technology and the prevention of underage and problem gamblers from playing on sites. “It will be interesting to see what other states have done,” Godfrey noted.
While they are committed to doing the study, neither Bennett nor Godfrey are expecting the results of the task force’s work to push for new laws in Mississippi. “We will not be making any recommendations regarding any new legislation or regulations,” Godfrey explained. Bennett also said the panel’s work was more informatory than anything else but, if the Mississippi legislature were to consider expansion in the future, the study would be complete for legislators to review.
After being named the head of the task force by Bennett, Godfrey chose these people that comprise the group. These are the people that were chosen for the group:
Larry Gregory, the director of the Mississippi Gaming and Hospitality Association and a former director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission
Dorothy Loggins, member of the Mississippi Council on Problem & Compulsive Gambling
Craig Orgeron, CIO and director of the Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services
Catherine Price, professor of Casino, Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of Mississippi
Jan Craig, associate commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Revenue
Jason Pugh, vice president of Instruction & Community Campus, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College
Michael Bruffey, a Mississippi attorney
For the past two years, there have been attempts in the Mississippi legislature to pass full casino online gaming. House Representative Bobby Moak (D-Bogue Chitto) introduced HB 1373 in February 2012, which died in committee in March of that year. Undaunted, Moak tried again in 2013 with HB 254, which was the identical bill that he had introduced a year earlier. That version of the bill also died in the House Ways and Means Committee slightly more than a year ago.
Sports betting would also be a difficult industry to implement in Mississippi. Under the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, only four states – Delaware, Montana, Nevada and Oregon – are allowed to offer sports betting. New Jersey has challenged the federal government on that issue but, after a review by the 3rd U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals in September 2013, a previous ruling against New Jersey was upheld.
The Mississippi task force will meet for the first time in May at the Southern Gaming Summit in Biloxi and has a great deal of work ahead of it. Bennett has challenged the group to have its report ready by the end of 2014.