Sports betting revenue in Mississippi for April fell short of March’s figure of $3.4m, and was 27.9% down on the same month last year, when $4.3m in revenue was reported.

Total handle for the month was $34.3m. This was a 22.9% decrease on the $44.5m in bets taken in March. However, it was 7.9% ahead of April 2023’s figure of $31.8m.

In terms of where bets were placed, Mississippi’s coastal casinos again led the way, reporting $1.5m in revenue and $23.6m in handle.

Central casinos took $6.6m in bets and generated revenue of $1.2m. Northern casinos, meanwhile, reported handle and revenue of $4.1m and $402,880 respectively.

What sports are they betting on in Mississippi?

With the National Football League (NFL) season having ended in February, basketball and baseball were the most popular sports for betting at Mississippi’s coastal casinos over April.

Baseball narrowly led the way for handle with $8.7m at coastal casinos, also generating $1.3m in revenue. They took $8.6m in basketball bets but reported a $525,117 loss on those wagers.

For central casinos, meanwhile, sports parlay cards led the way with $2.9m in handle to basketball’s $2.3m. Parlay-card revenue was $908,108, with basketball and baseball revenue totaling $220,331 and $48,922 respectively.

Mississippi online sports betting bill dies in committee

On 29 April, a bill for legal online sports betting in Mississippi died in conference committee. HB 774 would have allowed up to 30 online wagering platforms if they were tethered with casinos. A 12% tax rate would also have been set.

However, despite the house approving HB 774 in February, the bill didn’t make it out of senate.

Following the repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in May 2018, Mississippi became the third US state to launch a form of legal sports betting.

However, it appears wagering will remain only available in land-based casinos and on-site mobile for the near future, despite three of the four states bordering Mississippi offering online betting.

A new report finds a Mississippi River watershed northwest of the Twin Cities shows signs of improving water quality, but still faces challenges.

The Mississippi River-St. Cloud watershed northwest of the Twin Cities drains parts of seven counties, including fast-growing Wright and Sherburne.

About 40 percent of the land in the watershed is agricultural. There are also 374 lakes and more than 900 miles of rivers and streams.

“It’s a very dynamic watershed, and one that contains four of the fastest growing communities in the state of Minnesota either within or on the edge,” said Phil Votruba, watershed project manager with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

The St. Cloud stretch of the Mississippi River is designated as wild and scenic and is popular for recreation, including canoeing and fishing. St. Cloud is the most upstream city to draw its drinking water from the Mississippi.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency first monitored the watershed in 2009. A decade later, a second round of monitoring found some hopeful signs.

“It’s a watershed that we have really made good strides positively going forward from the previous cycle,” Votruba said. However, “we stepped back in a few areas as well,” he said.

Eight lakes and streams are no longer on the state’s list of impaired waters, and 17 lakes are showing positive trends, Votruba said. The overall health of fish and macroinvertebrates has improved.

But the watershed still faces threats, including the loss of shoreline buffers and habitat to development, and excess levels of phosphorus, sediment and bacteria due to runoff from farms and urban areas.

One of the biggest challenges, Votruba said, will be to manage growth and agriculture in the watershed to protect rivers, lakes and groundwater as much as possible.

The MPCA is accepting public comments on the report until June 12. A virtual public meeting is scheduled for 9-11 a.m. Thursday.

GULFPORT, Miss. (WDAM) – Administrators at Mississippi Power are getting ready for hurricane season.

Tuesday, disaster directors from across the Mississippi Power service area gathered at the company’s Operations Center in Gulfport to go over their response plans for the 2024 tropical storm season.

“We continually refine our plans, we strive to be a learning organization,” said Stephen Schruff, storm director for Mississippi Power. “So today is about sharing some learnings from last year that we’ve incorporated, discuss any gaps we have and work together as a team to improve those gaps. And then, we’ll have some learnings that we’ll take back to our teams and share as we prepare for hurricane season.”

About three dozen people took part in the annual meeting.

They say they are ready to meet customer needs after a hurricane and are hoping customers are also focused on staying safe if a storm strikes.

“In the event of a storm, I would tell [our customers] to always go out to our website, look at our outage map and make sure that they’re keeping up with the outages and continue to communicate with us,” said Cedrick Hurd, division manager at Mississippi Power. “But when we’re out and about, I would also encourage them to stay away from any downed power lines, stay away from any trees, because a lot of that stuff is dangerous, and just make sure they’re making the right contact to us to take care of that.”

The Gulfport Operations Center opened in 2008.

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