Ole Miss To Launch Center On Collegiate Gambling
Jesse M. Cox Published 12/04/2026
Mississippi won’t be getting online sports betting anytime soon, but the state will offer the opportunity to study the impact of online sports betting on college students.
Shortly after the Mississippi State Senate again rejected a bill to legalize online sports betting in the state, Ole Miss unveiled its plan to launch the Center on Collegiate Gambling.
Billing it as the first of its kind in the USA, the Center on Collegiate Gambling was approved by the school’s Institute of Higher Learning Board of Trustees. Some $700,000 will be invested in operational costs for the center. The first order of business will be the hiring of staff.
In a statement unveiling plans, organizers established that the goal of the center will be to study the heightened risks for college students and student-athletes caused by the rapid growth of legalized sports betting and online gambling in the USA.
A recent survey conducted by the University of Mississippi found that 39% of college students in the state had gambled in some format over the past year. Six percent of the students involved in the survey identified themselves as problem gamblers on sports betting, based on criteria set out by the American Psychiatric Association.
"We really think that this is an issue that affects Mississippi at large," Hannah Allen-King, executive director of the university's William Magee Institute for Student Wellbeing and assistant professor of public health, said in a media release. "And so, we're trying to work with our legislators as they debate policy change around gambling in the state."
Without any major pro sports franchises, the emphasis on college sports in Mississippi is that much greater. And because of that, it leads to more tension and pressure resulting from significant betting on college games.
“In a state like Mississippi, where we don’t have a lot of professional sports teams, college sports are such a big part of our culture, and a large part of our state population follows and cares about college sports,” King said.
“We’ve seen that it can impact the mental health of student-athletes who are getting threatened and harassed because people are losing money because of their performance during games.”
Mississippi yet again rejects a proposal to legalize online sports betting
Just last week, Mississippi lawmakers once again rejected the opportunity to legalize online sports betting.
Bill 1851, put forth by State Rep. Corey Eure, would have legalized online sports betting through partnerships between the online sports betting operators and the state’s land-based casinos. Each retail casino would have been granted the opportunity to partner with as many as two sportsbooks.
The bill passed through the State House, but died in the Mississippi Senate Finance Committee. It’s the third successive year in Mississippi that the House has passed an online sports betting bill, only to see it die in the Senate.
In-person sports betting at the state’s tribal casinos was legalized in 2018.
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