Mississippi Gaming Act Could Send Online Players to Prison

According to the Mississippi Lawful Gaming Act of 2015that was recently introduced in the state legislature, players who get caught playing on offshore poker sites could face 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $10,000. Additionally, any property purchased with winnings could also be confiscated.

On the same day that Washington introduced its own ipoker bill, Mississippi State Representative Bobby Moak introduced a measure in his home state that aims to regulate online gambling and impose stiff penalties for players who continue to play on unregulated and unlicensed poker sites.

The new bill calls for a "person to be guilty of unlawful Internet gambling when he or she knowingly causes, engages in or permits any gambling activity (prohibited under Sections 1 through 19 of this Act) through the Internet from any point within the state, whether the gambling activity is conducted within or without the state."

Most laws for online gaming don’t go after actual players on gambling websites, but after the operators. This bill could change that. The question is why would players want to play on unregulated offshore sites when there is a regulated licensed site in the state? Basically, because every new poker site needs some time to build up liquidity and it is likely that the new sites under the state’s regulatory framework will not have the same traffic as already-existing offshore sites. It takes some time and patience to get players to switch over from site to site because players tend to play where the games are better.

California and Washington are attempting to legalize online poker in 2015 and Washington is still the only state that considers playing online poker a crime, punishable by jail. Fortunately, the statute in Washington State has never been enforced.

Even though Moak's proposal is unlikely to pass this year, there is still hope that the state will be ready to legalize online poker within a few years. If Mississippi legalizes online poker, the provision allowing the state to jail some poker players will, hopefully, be cut out of the bill.