Guide to the Mississippi Gambling Age: Casinos, Sports Betting & More

As the third most visited gambling destination in the US, the great state of Mississippi is known for its huge support of the gambling industry, and has legalized several popular forms. With an ever-growing market, especially in the last few years. Mississippi is seen an industry leader in the south.

On this page we will give you a good overview of the current legal status of all popular forms of modern gambling, as well as letting you know the legal Mississippi gambling age for all forms of gaming. As well as giving you an oversight of the current legal standing of each form of gambling, we will also let you know about any upcoming statutory changes that might be in play.

In the table above we have included the minimum ages for each form of legal gambling in Mississippi. From looking at the table you can see that there is a blanket age of legality in the Magnolia State, and it is 21. If there isn’t an age underneath an activity then that form is not yet legal in Mississippi.

In the sections below we will go into more detail about the state gambling age for each form of legalized gambling,g as well as doing a deep dive into the ins and outs of playing particular forms of gambling in Mississippi.

Casino Age in Mississippi

Mississippi has a long history with casino gambling, in the mid-19th century river boat casino gambling was a popular pastime for residents of the Marigold State – however, the advent of the Civil War saw the end of all casino gambling. Fast forward to 1989 when over a century later Mississippi state legislature legalizes river-boat casinos again closely followed by land-based casinos in 1992.

There are currently 15 riverboat casinos, 13 land-based commercial casinos and 3 tribal land-based casinos operating in Mississippi, meaning residents are spoilt for choice. The legal gambling age and casino age in Mississippi is 21. There are no restrictions on what games any of the casinos can offer which means that players at any form of casino can enjoy electronic slot games alongside traditional casino table games and non-house backed card games such as poker.

The legal gambling age for casinos is set to 21 as this is the legal drinking age across the US. All Mississippi casinos are able to sell alcohol and are even legally allowed to serve complimentary drinks to casino visitors, in order to ensure things don’t get complicated when free drinks are being handed out it makes sense that the casino age limit and legal drinking age align.

While there isn’t a restriction on the amount of casinos Mississippi state can have within its borders, legislation was introduced in 2013 that places strict restrictions on what any new casino must include if it is to take up residence in Mississippi. In order to open in the Marigold state any new casino must have 300 hotel rooms, over 40,000 sqft of gambling floor, a fine dining restaurant along with facilities that would make it appealing to the tourist market.

What are The Casinos In Mississippi that accept 18 year Olds?

There are no casinos in Mississippi that accept 18 year olds. As mentioned above, the legal gambling age for casinos in Mississippi is 21. Even though Mississippi is often touted as one of the gambling market leaders in the southern US it is still takes a very traditional approach when it comes to gambling ages.

To help you find the best eight casinos in Mississippi we’ve pulled together a list of their names and addresses in the table below.

Sports Betting In Mississippi

Like all other forms of gambling in Mississippi the legal betting age for sports betting is 21. The legislation allowing sports betting that was passed in 2018 allowed for already established casinos to apply for sports betting licenses, these licenses allow casinos to house land-based sports betting facilities. There were also provisions within the legislation that enabled mobile sports betting but this can only be undertaken within the four walls of registered sports betting casinos.

In another move that shows how forward -thinking Mississippi is in the gambling industry, the state joined with four other states who have also legalized sports betting; Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Louisiana to form coalition in which they discuss the best practices for sports betting. This ensures that all states stay in line with each other, while also allowing them to stay on top of any new initiatives or developments other states might be introducing.

One additional area of sports betting that was finally made legal in 2019 is pari-mutuel betting on horse racing. It seems at odds with Mississippi’s current positioning as a forward-thinking gambling state that it took so long for such a traditional form of wager to become legal. But at its heart Mississippi is a deeply conservative state and the introduction of any new form of gambling always faces a large hurdle of overcoming local religious and community groups that oppose legalization.

The one area in which Mississippi is yet to branch into is online sports betting. There have been several attempts to introduce this, so far to no success. We will go into more details regarding this and the legality of all other forms of online gambling in the section below.

Mississippi Online Gambling Age

Online casinos are not yet legal in Mississippi. In fact, there is a prohibition on all forms of online gambling across the state. As a result illegal in Mississippi there is no legal online gambling age. Despite having a vested history in wagering, there does appear to be quite a few obstacles in making online betting legal in the Marigold State.

With commercial interests lobbying the state against legalizing online gambling coupled with local religious groups opposing any developments in the market– it looks as if it will be an uphill battle for Mississippi state to legalize online gambling any time soon.

While online bets are illegal in Mississippi, residents may still be able to access off-shore websites. These websites might seem appealing as they offer multiple forms of gaming to those who are 18 years and older. However, residents should be wary as these websites are not licensed or regulated in the US and therefore any players would not be covered by any consumer protection laws.

Mississippi residents shouldn’t be disheartened by the fact that online casinos and sports betting are not yet legal in the Marigold State, there are still plenty of in person gambling forms they can enjoy. To see what forms of wagers are legal in Mississippi check out our legal gambling age table at the top of the page.

Legal Poker Age

Like all forms of online gambling in Mississippi online poker is illegal. However, fans of poker who find themselves in the Marigold State can still enjoy the casino classic in person at one of the state’s many casinos that house poker rooms. Like all casinos in Mississippi, the legal gambling age for playing poker is also 21.

Looking to the future, it seems as if online poker won’t be available until there is widespread support for online gambling across Mississippi. As mentioned before there are several commercial interest groups lobbying against the legalization of online gambling, this coupled with the lack of pressure from residents to legalize online gambling means it might be a while before online gambling takes off in the great state of Mississippi.

Daily Fantasy Sports

Daily Fantasy Sports is legal in Mississippi and has been since 2017. In fact, Mississippi was the fourth state in the US to officially enshrine Daily Fantasy Sports legality in state legislation. Like all other forms of legal gambling in Mississippi players must be 21 to play Daily Fantasy Sports.

Before 2017 Daily Fantasy Sports had operated in Mississippi in a very grey area of the law, which was not a sustainable format. Through passing legislation in 2017 that legalized Daily Fantasy Sports Mississippi was able to formally regulate it as well as allowing the state to apply taxes on all operators, due to the popularity of Daily Fantasy Sports this has been a great state revenue generator.

Legal Age to Play the Lottery in Mississippi

Along with the legalization of sports betting, 2019 saw another important change to Mississippi’s gambling landscape; this was the legalization of a state lottery. Mississippi is one of the last states in the US to legalize a state run lottery, only 8 states in the US remain without a lottery.

The legal lottery age in Mississippi is 21, and the newly established state lottery is managed by the Mississippi Lottery. As the lottery is still a relatively new form of gambling there aren’t as many lottery games on offer as other more established state lotteries, but the lottery stalwarts Powerball, Mega Millions and Scratch Cards are still available. Keeping in line with Mississippi’s altruistic reputation all revenue generated by the lottery is reinvested in state infrastructure and education.

There isn’t an online lottery on offer in Mississippi. With many other neighboring states diversifying into offering an online lottery, this could be on the cards for Mississippi in the future. However, as there has been significant push back by commercial interest lobbyists against legalizing other forms of online gambling there might be a few hurdles to overcome before an online lottery is realized.

Mississippi Gambling Laws & Future Outlook

Mississippi’s gaming laws can be found within the Gambling Control Act and the Mississippi Criminal Code which states ‘Gambling is betting on games or encouraging any game, other than a dog fight, for money or other valuable thing. Unless done in a permitted manner, it’s illegal’.

Therefore any form of wagering and betting on something could be deemed an illegal form of gambling, the legal forms of gambling are allowed as they have specific legislation that states they are exceptions to the criminal code definition of gambling.

Mississippi’s gambling market is very healthy and has been growing exponentially year on year since 2017, which could be attributed to the introduction of Daily Fantasy Sports in 2017, Sports Betting in 2018 and the legalization of a state lottery in 2019.

The state casino market alone brought in $4.41 billion of economic stimulus in 2019, and supports over 37,000 jobs. The popularity of casino gambling in Mississippi doesn’t seem to be waning any time soon, and with the state still keeping the door open to new casinos opening within their borders it doesn’t look like its popularity will be tailing off anytime soon.

There are taxes applied to gambling winnings in Mississippi. Any gambling winnings are considered personal income; therefore all winnings need to be declared on individuals personal income returns each year and they will be taxed at each individuals personal income rate. One exception to this is the state lottery which also has a federal tax of 25% applied to any winnings above $600 in addition to a 3% state tax.

Currently there is a positive outlook for gambing in Mississippi. In recent years there have been massive breakthroughs in legalizing new forms of gambling including the introduction of Daily Fantasy Sports, sports betting and a state lottery in the space of two years.

The most recent discussion within Mississippi has been regarding legalizing online sports betting. Currently any form of ‘online’ sports betting is limited to mobile apps that can only be used within the confines of one of the state’s casinos who are licensed to take sports bets. Opening up the law to include online sports betting in its entirety would mean that players can bet from the comfort of their own homes.

However, there are many commercial interests that oppose online gambling and these interests have even hired lobbyists to halt the passing of any online gambling bills. The main reason for their opposition is that online gambling would stop a portion of gamblers from visiting bricks and mortar casino locations, and this would mean a loss in revenue for these locations. Therefore it seems that until an agreement can be made with these commercial entities online gambling has a steep hill to climb before it can be passed into law in Mississippi.

Frequently Asked Questions

We hope that this page has answered any questions you may have regarding gambling in Mississippi and the legal gambling ages required to participate in any form of legal gambling. If you still have any outstanding questions take a read through the answers to the most frequently asked questions below. Check out our homepage for more gambling ages in the USA.