Mississippi sees April sports betting handle of $32.9m

Mississippi sportsbooks took in April handle of $32.9m, a 35% decline from March.

Sports betting revenue for the month was $4.3m, down 18% from the prior month.

The drop in wagers follows the national trend of handle dipping off between March and April, due to a reduced US sports schedule last month.

However, Mississippi’s handle drop was steeper than other states. Colorado, for example, saw a 18% dip over the two months, while Indiana fell 25%, Iowa dropped 27% and Michigan was down 31%.

One reason Mississippi saw a significant drop in handle is that the state only allows on-site online wagering, limiting sports bettors to wagering inside the state’s 26 casinos.

Lawmakers appear to be in no rush to expand mobile sports wagering, either. In February three Mississippi mobile bills failed to make it out of committee.

Mississippi’s all-time handle record is $61.1m, set in October 2020. Since then, neighboring Tennessee has launched an exclusive online sports betting market that took in $206m of handle in March.

Louisiana lawmakers are also on the verge of legalizing sports wagering across most of the Pelican State, which would up the competition along the Gulf Coast.

The Gulf Coast is where the majority of Mississippi’s casinos are located, including eight in Biloxi. The casinos benefited last month from the lifting of all Covid-19 measures, though some properties still enforce mask-wearing indoors.

Casino slots handle was $2.6bn last month, a 3% increase from March, while table games handled soared to $175m, up 6% from the month prior.

Ezra Amacher

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