Mississippi Online Casinos

Mississippi Online Casinos and Real Money Slots

Regulation and legality of online gambling

Online gambling is not legal in Mississippi. It’s also not illegal, which is mostly due to a strange legal situation. There are simply no laws pertaining to online casinos in Mississippi, which is mainly due to the fact that legislators are slow to adopt new trends in technology.

Even though most of us consider smartphone/computer use as second nature, it’s still a relatively new trend in the iGaming business. As there are more attractive or lucrative matters for legislators to attend to, online gambling has been left unattended.

This situation created a ‘grey area’ situation, where players can partake in online casino games without any sort of repercussion whatsoever. Because there are no laws in place, law enforcement can’t do anything to you.

However, this also means that there aren’t any online casinos based in Mississippi. There is no licensing process for neither existing nor new operators to obtain an online license. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some great casino games on your computer or smartphone.

You can access basically any site in the world, as long as it allows players from Mississippi to partake in the games they offer. Since it’s a ‘grey area’ state, most casino sites have embraced the lack of legislation and, now, they welcome Mississippians with open arms. In most cases, you don’t even need a VPN to access them.

When it comes to future legalization of online gambling, experts believe that Mississippi will be a true gambling mecca of the South in a few years. Thanks to the 1990 Mississippi Gaming Control Act, counties in the Gulf and Mississippi River areas were allowed to house casinos.

Since there are 29 of them in only 7 counties, online gambling is all but imminent. MGM and Caesars are known to have lobbied for changes in the Magnolia State. Sports betting was introduced in August 2019, with mobile apps coming soon. It’s just a matter of time before online casinos do, too.

The Mississippi iGaming scene is in need of clarification of the existing laws, or the introduction of new ones. The state’s criminal code has a vague language with a lot of outdated terms. Here’s a sentence: "It shall be unlawful for any person or persons, firm, copartnership, or corporation to have in possession, own, control, display, or operate any cane rack, knife rack, artful dodger, punch board, roll down, merchandise wheel, slot machine, pinball machine, or similar device or devices." . These broad terms at the end could, hypothetically, be applied to computers or smartphones. But that’s a stretch.

It’s hard to predict whether and when Mississippi might legalize online gambling. A House Bill 306 referred to as the Mississippi Lawful Internet Gambling Act was introduced in 2015. It was supposed to establish punishments for offshore gambling, but it never made it beyond committee level.

Gambling history in Mississippi

To reach the beginning of gambling in Mississippi, we need to go centuries back through history. Way before Europeans came, the Choctaw, Chickasaw and other Indians in the region gambled regularly. According to early accounts, the Indians loved to wager on stickball, or ishtaboli. Europeans and Africans who settled in the Mississippi region brought checkers, cards, and billiards with them.

In the 1790s, Mississippi was a Spanish territory and they constructed a proper racetrack where they wagered on their favorite horses and jockeys. Mississippi became a state in 1817 and gambling was already there.

As the state’s population grew, so did entertainment and gambling opportunities. From billiards in Biloxi to schooner races and finally gambling machines along the Mississippi Strip, the Magnolia State built a solid gambling industry which mainly followed the waterline road.

A drastic change happened in 1950 when the Biloxi Protestant Ministerial Association raised awareness about the dangers of gambling. They also claimed that the operation of gambling machines was in violation of the law, the Mississippi Law Code of 1942 to be precise.

As a result of this initiative and an investigation of existing casino venues by the US Senate’s Committee, most of the slot machines were confiscated and the industry sunk underground. What remained of operating clubs suffered damage from Hurricane Camille in 1969.

The gambling decline ended in 1990 when Mississippi legislators passed the Mississippi Gaming Control Act. It allowed casino gambling in counties along the Gulf Coast or the Mississippi River. Millions of people visit Mississippi casinos, and a lot of them come from outside of the state. The state allows charitable raffles and bingo, but there is yet a state lottery to be established.

Mississippi Land based casinos

Being located in the Deep South, Mississippi is somewhat of an exception for embracing casino gambling while most of its neighboring states remain reluctant to do so. There are currently more than 25 casino establishments in the Magnolia State and all of them are commercial in nature. Native American gambling is allowed, but the only tribal venue operating in Mississippi is a sportsbook launched by the Choctaw Tribe at Pearl River Resort.

Some of the most prominent destinations for gambling in Mississippi are Biloxi, Tunica and Vicksburg. The casinos in these areas improved health and education in the state and also created tens of thousands of job positions. Beau Rivage Casino is a waterfront casino resort in Biloxi, which was re-opened in 2006 after Hurricane Katrina. It is owned and operated by MGM Resorts International and relies on 72,000 square feet of gaming space. The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Biloxi was opened in 2007; it has over 1400 slot machines and more than 50 table games. It also offers a Hard Rock Live performance arena, and plenty of rock artifacts and memorabilia.

The Horseshoe Casino Tunica features more than 70 table games and over 2,000 slot machines. The venue boasts a large poker room, three fine-dining restaurants, more than 500 rooms (suites), a large buffet and a snack bar. The Island View Casino is a casino and hotel located in Gulfport. With its Beach Tower hotel complex, Island View can accommodate 970 guests. It has over 1,000 video poker and slot machines and 15 gaming tables.

Pearl River Resort is the only tribal gaming resort in Magnolia State. It is owned by the federally recognized Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. It includes the Silver Star Hotel & Casino and the Golden Moon Hotel & Casino.

Neighbouring States: Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee

Top Mississippi Casino Slots and Games

References

[1] Mississippi Gaming Commission

[2] Online gambling - are players at risk of prosecution?

[3] American Gaming Association - https://www.americangaming.org