Mississippi governor in favor of lottery legislation

Phil Bryant said that he wants a new push from legislators to legalise a state lottery.

US.- Mississippi governor Phil Bryant commented that he’s in favor of legislators pushing to legalise a state lottery in order to generate millions in revenue. The governor believes that a new gambling industry could help boost the state budget.

“When you’re looking at some of the challenges that we’re having and you see a revenue bill that would generate somewhere between 50 and 60 million dollars, just an estimate, I think that’s something that needs to be taken seriously by the members of both the House and the Senate,” said Bryant to The Associated Press. Bryant explained to the AP that his administration had to make cuts for the third time since the budget year started because tax collections continued to fall short of expectations.

Whilst lottery proposals in Mississippi failed to pass the House this month, it is expected that the bills could be revived in the Senate in the upcoming weeks. “When I was lieutenant governor and president of the Senate, if I had a majority of my members who wanted to vote, I thought it was incumbent upon me to let them have that opportunity to exercise that right,” added Bryant.

“It may not be just popular with some members, but I think the majority wants to have an opportunity to vote on a state lottery, and we’d certainly look at that with great interest,” he said. Mississippi is currently trying to legalise House Bill 967 which contemplates the regulation of daily fantasy sports (DFS). The first vote on the bill was held earlier this month and was rejected, but legislators decided to pass the project to the Senate. The gaming bill would authorise the operation of the modern betting contests based on real life sports. The activity would be controlled by the Mississippi Gaming Commission and operators may be allowed to bid for online licenses as well as land-based permissions.