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Legal and regulated sports betting has virtually enveloped the United States. Since the 2018 decision by the US Supreme Court to overturn the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA), state governments have moved quickly to take advantage of the opportunity to legalize sports wagering.
Americans in 38 of the country’s 50 states can now wager at legal and regulated sportsbooks. Among those, 30 are also offering an online and mobile app option for sports betting.
However, one geographic area of the USA has been slow to get on board with the sports betting explosion – the Deep South.
Currently, only two southern US states – Louisiana and Florida – are offering both retail and online sports betting to their population. In each case, there’s a caveat attached to legalization. Elsewhere, Mississippi is offering legal and regulated retail sports betting, but sports betting apps in Mississippi remain illegal.
States such as Georgia, Alabama, Missouri and South Carolina prohibit all forms of sports betting.
Let’s look at each of these states to see what they offer in terms of sports betting and if or when that landscape might be changing.
Louisiana
While both legal and regulated online and retail sports betting were approved for Louisiana in 2020, the fact of the matter is that sports betting isn’t legal everywhere in the Bayou State.
The state is divided into parishes. Each parish was allowed to hold its own vote on whether to legalize sports betting. The end result of this balloting is that there are nine of 64 parishes in the state where sports betting remains illegal.
Florida
It’s been a battle royale to get sports betting legalized in the Sunshine State. A back and forth tussle is currently again leaning in favor of the pro-sports betting lobby. In December of 2023, the DC Court Of Appeals ruled in favor of the state’s Seminole Tribe and once again legalized both retail and online sports betting.
Florida State law requires constitutional change to legalize sports betting. Instead, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis pounced on a loophole to get around this measure. Partnering with the Seminole Tribe, which controls the majority of casino gambling in Florida, they applied for and were granted a sports betting license through the Federal Department of the Interior in 2021.
However, a lobby group opposed to Seminole control of online sports betting known as the West Flagler Group appealed this ruling in a court of law and won, overturning the legalization of sports betting in Florida. Then the Seminoles won their appeal to return sports betting action to the people
Undaunted, the West Flagler Group is now petitioning the US Supreme Court. The battle continues.
Mississippi
Mississippi was quick to legalize sports betting when the US Supreme Court overturned PASPA in 2018. There were legal retail sportsbooks operating in the state within three months of the Supreme Court ruling. Today, there are 29 retail sports betting sites across the state, each situated inside a Mississippi casino.
You can make mobile wagers on sports betting in the state of Mississippi. However, in order to do so, you must be physically present inside a Mississippi land-based casino that is operating a retail sportsbook on its premises. BetMGM and Caesars are among the sportsbooks offering this limited mobile wagering option to players.
Alabama
Alabama is a barren land when it comes to legal and regulated forms of gambling. There are no commercial casinos operating in the state. Alabama is one of just five US states that doesn’t offer a state lottery.
When it comes to sports betting, it’s also non-existent. Three attempts have been made to legalize sports betting via bills put forth in front of the Alabama state government. Each of the three bills – in 2019, 2021 and 2022 – failed to make it out of the state senate.
Georgia
All forms of sports betting are illegal in Georgia (John Trainor photo. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license).
Hopes to legalize sports betting the Peach State again met with disappointment in 2024. A proposal to amend the state constitution to allow for a public vote to legalize sports betting that was in front of the Georgia General Assembly was never heard on the floor. The proposed bill never made it beyond committee.
Since 2020, there have been 11 separate bills put forward to legalize sports betting in Georgia. All have met with failure.
Missouri
Over each of the past three years, sports betting bills have been put in front of the Missouri state government. All failed to pass.
However, there are some indications of hope for the future. In May 0f 2024, a petition with 340,000 signatures was presented to Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft. The petition is from the Winning for Missouri Education coalition. They are demanding that a referendum on the legalization of sports betting be added to the November 2024 election ballot. According to state law, just 180,000 signatures were required to get this proposal on the ballot.
This initiative is being backed by all six of the state’s professional sports franchises, as well as sports betting sites FanDuel and DraftKings.
South Carolina
Few states are as limited regarding legalized gambling as South Carolina. There are no land-based casinos in the state, only a handful of riverboat casinos that offer gambling once they move into international waters. Horse racing isn’t operational in South Carolina. There is a state lottery, but no sports betting of any kind is legal in the state.
Governor Henry McMaster is a staunch anti-gambling advocate. During the 2022 gubernatorial election, challenger Joe Cunningham boldly put forth a pro-gambling platform as part of his election promises. He was soundly defeated by the incumbent.
Even with northern neighbor North Carolina opting to legalize sports betting in 2024, so far that hasn’t caused South Carolina officials to blink or even budge an inch on their anti-gambling stance.
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