The frustration for people in Mississippi continues to grow and you can't blame people for that at all. There have been some serious efforts to get online wagers approved in the state, but things just haven't been crossed over the line. There was a new push to get things done just recently too, but online sports betting in Mississippi failed to get approved once again and people can't believe what's going on.

That's right, the deadline arrived last month for a House committee vote and there were two separate online sports betting bills that were there to be approved. However, both did not advance and the state is now back to square one. This is frustrating for several different reasons. At the top of the list has to be that we've been here before, including last year, but things failed at the last minute.

The two ones on the table were House Bill 1581 and House Bill 4074. With the latter, it was a online sports betting bill that that was going to unite sports betting with casino partnerships, while there would have been a 22 percent tax put in place too. That would have generated a decent amount of tax revenue for the state moving forward. As for HB 1581, it was passed in the House in February, but then the rough news came in soon after with no final vote coming in.

There was a split among senators on what to do. A good portion of people wanted to see sports betting come through with online options, while others worried it could negatively impact in-person casinos and their efforts there. That division led to this latest negative setback, which people indeed are tired of. There will surely be another effort to get this done next year too, but people aren't too happy about this.

Legal sports betting is still allowed at in-person casinos

While this sure feels like a gut punch, keep in mind that legal sports betting is still allowed at in-person casinos. The good news is that there are a total of 26 casinos that offer legal sports betting in the state. The problem, however, is that you do in fact have to place those bets in person. This is an issue that local citizens have brought up several times, as they'd prefer the ability to make those bets from the comfort of their own homes.

On top of that, legal betting allows for people to make wagers on the go to. With the current plan that has been put in place, you can only place a legal sports wager if you get in your car and drive to one of the 26 casinos that is closest to your home. This is not an issue for so many other states, as legal betting options are on the table.

People in Mississippi have been using prediction markets for their legal sports betting needs, but just like other states, including California and Texas, this is something officials are working to have come to an end. This is a loophole for online Mississippi betting, which continues to be recorded on a consistent basis. On the flip side of things, having well over 20 in-person casinos is great news as options are not limited there like they are in other spots. So, it's a bit of good and bad news.

Will online sports betting arrive in Mississippi next year?

The question moving forward now is will online sports betting arrive in Mississippi next year? That's of course going to be up in the air, but there's no doubt that it's going to be of the utmost importance for everyone to get on the same page somehow and work towards an online bill that's going to make everyone happy.

The longer we wait for things to arrive, the more money the state is going to miss out on in terms of the tax revenue. Again, it's great news that online betting has been approved, but not having online wagers as an option feels like one final hurdle that needs to be jumped through for a lot of people to be happy.

For now, a new online sports betting bill will need be to written up and the top priority will be to make sure that it answers the missing questions that these two most recent ones did not. In back-to-back years, things have been close in terms of legalization, but a fumble of sorts has occurred at the one yard line. People would love to be able to check the best NFL sportsbooks to put some money down and more moving forward, but it's very much unclear when that will happen.