It’s been three years for the reason that first authorized sports activities wager was positioned in Mississippi on the Beau Rivage Resort and On line casino and as predicted, it’s introduced a youthful crowd to the Coast casinos.
Scarlet Pearl On line casino in D’Iberville has seen a a lot youthful buyer, stated CEO LuAnn Pappas, together with extra regional enterprise.
In response, Scarlet Pearl most likely might be what she believes is the primary on line casino in South Mississippi to put in a cryptocurrency ATM machine, she advised members of the Gulf Coast Enterprise Council on the October assembly in Gulfport.
The machines — already in use in Las Vegas — permit prospects to transform their crypto coin into money to make use of on the on line casino.
Cryptocurrency is a digital type of foreign money used to purchase items and providers.
Mississippi doesn’t regulate whether or not a cryptocurrency ATM machines may be operated at a on line casino, stated Jay McDaniel, government director of Mississippi Gaming Fee.
What the state doesn’t permit but is utilizing cryptocurrency or a bank card immediately in a slot machine, he stated.
Going cashless in Mississippi is one thing the Gaming Fee would contemplate, he stated, if the on line casino operators requested it.
“COVID has pushed that dialogue,” McDaniel stated.
Resorts World Las Vegas opened this summer time with a cashless on line casino ground and cashless funds for eating places, outlets and leisure.
Will it occur in Mississippi?
“It’s actually as much as the operators at this level,” McDaniel stated.
WHY TECHNOLOGY IS KEY
Different on line casino operators are upgrading expertise to match the best way younger prospects do enterprise with the on line casino business, stated Jonathan Jones, common supervisor of Harrah’s Gulf Coast in Biloxi.
Jones stated millennials are accustomed to utilizing their bank cards or cellular wallets and apps to pay for the whole lot, and getting money out to play on the on line casino takes time and could be a burden. They’re additionally extra probably to make use of providers at casinos that require tipping, which may often solely be completed with money proper now.
“If you wish to play desk video games at certainly one of our properties, and also you’re a millennial with out money, you go to the ATM first. That takes 90 seconds,” he stated. “You then go to the desk sport, you give them their your money, they rely it, they get somebody to confirm the rely. Then they provide you our foreign money — the chips.”
When they’re completed enjoying, he stated, they get a special shade chip, which they take to the cage and get money again.
“Whereas shoppers have been accustomed to creating cellular funds or utilizing playing cards for almost all different items and providers, land-based on line casino gaming has remained primarily depending on money transactions,” the American Gaming Affiliation stated in its State of the States 2020 report.
Different expertise is also coming for youthful gamers, Jones stated, together with a terminal that may permit gamers to look at a dwell sporting occasion, get odds for the video games and play blackjack and video poker on the identical time.
WILL MOBILE SPORTS BETTING COME TO MISSISSIPPI?
Cell sports activities betting permits followers to put a wager from their pc or sensible cellphone inside states that permit it.
In September, New Jersey turned the primary state to absorb greater than $1 billion in bets in a single month on the on line casino sports activities books and on computer systems and telephones.
Mississippi Coast casinos took in $39 million in wagers in September, with $22 million of that wager on soccer. The entire for the state was $54.8 million.
Mississippi was the fourth state to legalize and open sports activities betting, however has but to permit cellular betting.
“That may be as much as the Legislature,” stated McDaniel.
Whereas betting by cellphone inside a Mississippi on line casino is allowed, just one on line casino — Gold Strike in Tunica — is permitting prospects to wager with their app within the on line casino.
In September, the BetMGM cellular app turned out there for obtain in Mississippi. Utilizing geolocation expertise, prospects at Gold Strike can place pre-game, dwell in-play, futures and parlay wagers from any cellular system.
Tennessee, which has no casinos however does allow on-line sports activities betting, had a file $257 million in wagers in September.
Louisiana now has cellular sports activities betting in parishes the place the wagering is allowed.
Jones stated Mississippi is “just a little behind on cellular. We’re engaged on that.”
“We’re lots behind,” Pappas countered.
Sports activities betting may be very common in Mississippi, Jones stated, and its enchantment and income are rising. As soon as cellular wagering is allowed, he stated, casinos want to ensure the expertise is true so prospects will need to go casinos for “a totally immersive expertise.”
