Review Of The IP Casino Resort Spa Sportsbook
No trip to Biloxi for sports betting would really be worth your while if you did not first take advantage of the info provided in our review of the IP Casino Resort Spa sportsbook. Yes, the doors to the IP’s sports betting lounge are finally open, and all indications so far point toward this being one of the premier locations for sports wagering on the strip in the “Riviera of the Southland.”
That’s because the sprawling complex, situated right on the Gulf of Mexico in the heart of Mississippi’s gambling capital, is home to one of the most profitable – and popular – gaming destinations that the Hospitality State has to offer both visitors and residents alike.
As our astute and loyal readers can no doubt safely deduce on their own, our review of the IP Casino Resort Spa sportsbook will cover a plethora of topics, ranging from details about the sportsbook’s opening, the types of bets customers are able to place there, and the slew of sports that you can find on the betting boards. We will also take a stab at answering some of the most frequently asked questions brought forward by hardcore sports bettors all the time, particularly questions relating to mobile sports betting options and the prospect of using a proxy betting service to place your bets from out of state. That and more can be found in our IP Casino Resort Spa sportsbook review, so read on if you want to make the most of your trip to Biloxi to get in on all the sports betting action.
Like we mentioned up there in the intro, the IP Casino Resort Spa Sportsbook is officially open for business. In what is obviously a natural development, the sportsbook – branded as the B-Thrilled Sports Book – is located directly adjacent to the IP’s wildly popular Highlights Sports Lounge, which features satellite coverage of global sports on over 65 big-screen plasma TVs. The B-Thrilled Sports Book at the IP Casino operates during the following hours (winning tickets can be redeemed at the property’s main cage after hours):
- Monday: 10:00 AM – 12:00 AM
- Tuesday: 10:00 AM – 12:00 AM
- Wednesday: 10:00 AM – 12:00 AM
- Thursday: 10:00 AM – 12:00 AM
- Friday: 10:00 AM – 1:00 AM
- Saturday: 9:00 AM – 1:00 AM
- Sunday: 9:00 AM – 12:00 AM
All that said, you should not view the current iteration of the sportsbook at the IP Casino to be its finalized form. While it is luxurious and decidedly high-tech, it was put together very quickly, and there are many aspects that will be refined in time. This is true of both the line values on the betting boards and the actual physical lounge where players place their wagers. For now, bettors are compelled to simply place their bets at the IP sportsbook and then watch the games in the Highlights Sports Lounge. That is a viable and appropriate solution (and the food- and drink-services are a definite plus), but sports betting aficionados attracted to the locale will expect dedicated lounge chairs and couches for enjoying the games they’re betting on. That, of course, is definitely coming to the IP sportsbook sooner rather than later, though, so sit tight (and then hang loose)!
If you are active in the sports betting community for any length of time, you probably will notice that the term “full-service betting” gets bandied about a lot by veterans of the sports wagering hobby. What that means in practical terms is that a sportsbook, in this case like the one at the IP Casino Resort Spa in Biloxi, offers the full range of wager types as well as multiple if not all sports upon which to place bets according to those wager types. So, now that we have a better understanding of what full-service betting actually is in real terms, we can answer the pressing question of “Does the IP Casino Resort Spa offer full-service betting?”
We are happy to report that, yes, the IP sportsbook absolutely offers full-service betting options for casino customers and hotel visitors alike. In the case of the IP, that means you can place wagers on all major professional sports (including the NBA, MLB, NFL, and NHL) as well as the PGA Tour, professional combat sports like boxing and mixed martial arts contests, Major League Soccer, and even auto racing series like NASCAR, Formula 1 and Indy Car racing.
College football is the king in the South, and fortunately for those planning to take advantage of the sports betting action offered by sportsbooks in Mississippi, the Magnolia State’s sports betting laws allow operators to offer action on just about any collegiate sport you can imagine. (Other states with legal sports betting tend to ban action on in-state college teams.) Many other kinds of amateur sports, including those sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee, will also have action – meaning the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics are going to be fair game at the IP Casino Resort Spa sportsbook. There should be international league play betting on soccer, rugby, and cricket as well.
The final component of the full service betting action to be offered by the newly-minted IP sportsbook and other sportsbooks is the sheer variety of actual wager types bettors can take advantage of once they have chosen their preferred sport upon which to bet. The good news that the IP sportsbook offers a full menu of wager types from single-game lines using moneyline odds, against the spread odds (ATS), and totals betting odds (over/unders) to prop bets specific to single players or entire teams of your choice. Big games that attract a lot of media and fan attention or contests that have a championship riding on the outcome will often have special betting lines assigned to them as well, so the for the purposes of this review of the IP Casino Resort Spa sportsbook, we can authoritatively say that if you are into sports betting, then there is sure to be a betting line at the B-Thrilled Sports Book that will tickle your fancy.
Right now, there are no perks, comps, or promos available at the IP Casino sportsbook. However, this is primarily due to two factors, and both speak to the temporary nature of this situation.
First, Mississippi sportsbooks are only getting started figuring out their clients’ demands re their sports betting products. In other words, promotions and comps are based on what kinds of bonuses will draw in the most users in a particular region. This will take time to figure out.
Secondly, while the books are figuring that out, they don’t have to worry so much about the minutiae of marketing right off the hop, as the mere presence of sports betting in the region is new enough – and news enough – to draw in anyone even remotely curious about placing legal sports bets inside land-based casinos. As the novelty of “new” wears off, promotions will be much, much more valuable, and this little window gives the book operators at the IP Casino a bit more time to figure everything out. Of course, if you want to take advantage of established and valuable sports betting promos, all the top online sportsbooks have several different perks to choose from for both new members and long-time customers.
Among the very few downsides of Mississippi’s sports betting laws and the associated regulations placed on the activity is that there is no provision to allow the state’s new sportsbooks to offer what could be considered an expansive mobile betting presence in the market. In real-world terms what this means is that, in our review of the IP Resort sportsbooks, we are going to have to say that you can place bets using your mobile device, but only inside the main building itself. That means that, in order to use the IP sports betting app for Android and Apple devices, you will have to stay inside the gambling floor or in the sportsbook section of the casino – even the parking lots, garages and so on are strictly off limits.
While this is unfortunate, it is important to understand that the direction taken by lawmakers not to authorize a very extensive smartphone or tablet mobile sports betting was a pretty smart tactic, all things considered. Compared to many other states around the country, the Magnolia State’s legislature had a fairly easy and non-controversial process to get wagering on sports legalized in advance of the US Supreme Court’s decision in May of 2018 to repeal the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA). Once PASPA – which functioned as the federal government’s ban on nationwide legal sports betting at the state level – was overturned by the SCOTUS justices’ majority decision, Mississippi sportsbooks could become a reality. With that being said, a fairly limited position on mobile sports betting is not likely to remain a feature of the IP sportsbook indefinitely, given the overwhelming popularity of using iPhone and Android sports betting in other markets where such things are legal and fully embraced.
For now, if you wish to place sports bets on your iPhone or iPad or other mobile devices while you go about your normal routine, you should consider using a legal offshore sportsbook. While sites like Bovada, BetOnline, SportsBetting, and the rest do not have native iPhone and Android apps, they do have specially-designed mobile betting portals accessible via your device’s browser app, and these provide the full desktop experience you’re used to in a small, one-tap package. Mobile betting is fast, secure, and efficient, and it’s by far the most popular way for people to place wagers over the Internet.
Plan Your Weekend Sports Betting Getaway At The IP Casino!
Now that sports betting is live at various casinos across Biloxi and the rest of Mississippi, you’re probably thinking about making a trip to check out the new books and betting opportunities available. And you absolutely should. However, some folks need to be reminded that a trip to a casino isn’t a cost-free proposition. Yes, you have to consider the moneyline on the sports bets you wish to make, but there are added expenses to also factor in. For example, if you don’t actually live near Biloxi, you will probably wish to make a weekend trip out of your first sports betting experience.
And that’s not cheap. With hotel rooms starting at $150 for weekend (Friday and Saturday) single-night rates, you might spend upwards of $1000 just to get to the IP Casino in order to place your $50 wager. As entertainment, this is viable. As an income exercise, this is not. In other words, if you are interested in sports betting as an income (or supplementary income) opportunity, you should consider going with an online, overseas solution. Books like Bovada, SportsBetting, and the rest of the A-rated online betting sites cost nothing to use, are accessible from anywhere, and have guaranteed timely payouts.
At the most basic level, proxy betting services solely exist as a way to attempt to get around the prohibitions placed on interstate sports betting by the passage of the Federal Wire Act of 1961. That longstanding law makes it illegal for gambling businesses to accept wagers (or even information used to place wagers) over the phone, the Internet or really any other variety of wired communications system. Ostensibly this was done so that the federal government and law enforcement officials could take a cut out of the revenues that organized criminal syndicates were getting from fixing sports or engaging in sports betting rackets, but individual bettors were not necessarily penalized by this law.
It is because of the ambiguity surrounding enforcement of the Wire Act that gambling mecca Las Vegas – and all its sportsbooks too – allows out-of-state players to wager on sports using proxy betting services. However, for the purposes of our review of the newly-opened IP Casino Resort Spa sportsbook in Biloxi, we cannot recommend that any of our readers attempt to place wagers on their favorite sports at this or any other Mississippi sportsbooks until the Magnolia State lawmakers and sports betting regulators issue a clarification on this issue.
As of right now, there is no law on the books that specifically says a sports bettor cannot use a proxy betting service, but neither does the law say that using these services is allowed. For our money, it is not worth running into trouble with the law if you are an out-of-state bettor, especially when there are still plenty of high quality legal offshore sports betting sites like Bovada, BetOnline, SportsBetting, BetDSI, and 5Dimes out there that allow bettors to play from wherever they are.