Mississippi State Lottery: Now One Signature Away

Mississippi is on the verge of establishing a state lottery. On Tuesday, the House reversed itself on a lottery bill that it had originally voted to kill late Monday night. After eight lawmakers changed their vote from no to yes yesterday, the bill was approved and sent to the governor’s office.

Governor Phil Bryant is almost certain to sign the legislation into law as it is he who largely led the effort to bring enough lawmakers on board to pass the bill. After the bill failed to pass Monday night, Governor Bryant met with legislators to convince them to change their votes. The governor was able to convince five Republicans and three Democrats to flip their votes on Tuesday and pass the bill.

With the governor’s signature, Mississippi will lose its place on the list of just six states without a lottery. That leaves just Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah without any lottery options for residents.

One of the arguments in favor of the lottery was that neighboring states were already poaching Mississippians to play in their lotteries. According to one estimate, Mississippians have already spent $30 million on lotteries offered by neighboring states.

Lawmakers in support of the lottery bill expect it to raise $40 million in its first year of operation and $80 million a year thereafter. Those funds are earmarked to pay for infrastructure improvements and any revenues raised in excess of $80 million will be put toward education in Mississippi.

Local news outlets report the Mississippi lottery is expected to take a good two years to become operational. Scratch-off tickets will be the first games offered, and the lottery will also have to apply to become accepted by the Multi-State Lottery Association to offer big ticket games such as Powerball.

What’s in the Mississippi Lottery Bill

Senate Bill 2001, also called the “Mississippi Lottery Law,” establishes the Mississippi Lottery Corporation to oversee and manage the lottery. We’ll just cover the key points today, but you can read the full text of the bill.

The bill calls on the governor to appoint a five-member board of directors who will then hire key personnel as needed and adopt rules and regulations for the Mississippi state lottery covering subjects such as:

• Ticket prices
• Numbers and amounts of prizes
• Methods and locations for selecting and validating winning tickets
• Frequency of drawings
• How prizes will be paid
• Manner and amount of compensation to lottery retailers

Other key points in the Mississippi lottery bill include:

• Minimum age of 21 to play
• Retailers may pay prizes of up to $600
• Larger prizes must be claimed from the MS Lottery Corporation
• The lottery may not publish the names of winners without their written permission
• Fines of up to $1,000 for knowingly selling tickets to anyone under 21
• Anyone who defrauds or cheats the lottery faces imprisonment of one to 20 years and a fine of up to $50,000
• Online ticket sales not approved; any use of the word “online” in the bill refers to lottery games that are a part of a network (such as Powerball or Mega Millions). The law specifically states that an online game “does not mean a video lottery terminal or games offered via the Internet on an individual’s personally owned device”