Mississippi is one of six states without a lottery, along with Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah. But Mississippi Senate Finance Committee Chairman Joey Fillingane recently said, although he personally opposes a lottery, he’d allow his committee to vote on legislation to allow it, if such a bill is filed. “It’s not the end-all, be-all that some people think it is,” Fillingane said, adding he believes a lottery would generate $50- $100 million a year.
Mississippi State Economist Darrin Webb said according to lottery administrators, Mississippi residents spend $5-$10 million a year to buy lottery tickets in Arkansas and $30 million on lottery tickets in Louisiana. State Rep. Mark Baker said, “If that money is going to go to educate children and it’s going to go to fix roads and bridges, then it ought to be in Mississippi. I’m just being a realist about it.”
In his 2017 State of the State address, Governor Phil Bryant said Mississippi should consider creating a lottery to generate revenue without raising taxes. Soon after, the House approved a lottery on a loud voice vote but voted 74-40 against it in an electronic vote.
House Speaker Philip Gunn of Clinton, a leader in his Baptist church, is against a lottery but formed a study group that spent months studying the issue in 2017. The study group researched how much money neighboring states collected, after prizes were awarded and expenses were paid, during the budget year ending June 30, 2016. The totals were $85.2 million for Arkansas; $177.9 million for Louisiana; and $395 million for Tennessee.
Study group member Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said if a lottery is established, legislators should direct the money to the state’s rainy day fund, not to the general fund. “You could collect it a year before you spent out of it. And it’s a safeguard, a conservative safeguard,” Flaggs said.
In November, Mississippi Gaming and Hospitality Association Director Larry Gregory told the lottery study group casino operators would not oppose a state lottery that sells paper tickets for scratch-off games or multistate Powerball games, but they would oppose video gambling in establishments like bars and convenience stores.
Other opponents include conservative and religious organizations, including the influential Mississippi Baptist Convention. Baptist Record Editor William Perkins said, “It’s pretty well documented that gambling, like alcohol, is not the best thing that can happen for Mississippi families. So, Mississippi Baptists are against gambling because it corrupts the soul.”
In November 1992, Mississippians voted to remove the state constitution’s ban on a lottery, but games of chance still are prohibited.
