Review Of The Island View Casino Sportsbook
In the wake of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina, the famous Copa Casino in Gulfport, MS, was declared a total loss, leading the property’s owners to construct the Island View Casino and Hotel in its place. Our review of the Island View Casino sportsbook uncovers a plethora of features that could make this one of the best Mississippi sportsbooks. In the years since the reconstruction efforts, the gaming facility has gone from strength to strength as a total resort package, with an 18-hole championship caliber golf course, numerous fine dining restaurants to choose from and a massive gaming floor backing up its 970 luxurious rooms. The Island View Casino even opened their non-smoking Beach Casino in the summer of 2018. It’s a winning combination that makes the Island View one of the top destinations in the South.
However, players looking to make plans for heading into town to try their hand at picking winners in their favorite sports at the Island View and other popular gambling spots should read up and get ready before making the trip. There may be some veteran sports bettors and especially newcomers to the hobby that are not aware of all the ins and outs associated with the current state of the new industry springing up around Mississippi sportsbooks. That’s why we took care of the legwork for you by producing this quick but comprehensive review of the Island View Casino sportsbook, which has all the information a savvy sports bettor (or a player who aspires to be) could possibly need to get started in their road to winning big on the Gulf Coast.
We should start off our review of the Island View Casino by clearing the air on what is probably the most important topic of all: is Island View Casino sportsbook actually open for business? The answer is yes! The Island View Casino Sportsbook opened its doors on August 30th, 2018. The hours are 10 am – 11 pm Monday, Thursday, and Friday, with the sportsbook opening an hour earlier on Saturday and Sunday. Tuesday and Wednesday you can place bets from 11 am to 7 pm. Interestingly enough, the operator owns two sportsbooks. One is located between the View Showroom and Carter Green Steakhouse at the North casino, while the other is located by Gulf Breeze Daiquiris at the newer, non-smoking Beach Casino. Both sportsbooks operate during the same hours and have the same betting odds.
When anybody has been around in the sports betting hobby for a long enough amount of time, they will invariably start to encounter the term “full-service betting” – that is basically just a cool sounding way to say that the sportsbook being described offers betting lines on most if not all different sports using a wide variety different wager types. For the purposes of our review of the Island View Casino sportsbook, we can heartily recommend this newly minted betting shop as it is a full-service sports betting outlet in every sense of the word.
Mississippi’s sports betting laws allow sportsbook operators to offer action on all the major professional sports leagues, from the NBA to the NHL, the NFL to the MLB, along with several different alternative pro sports like Major League Soccer, boxing and mixed martial arts contests, automobile racing series like NASCAR or Formula 1 and even the US PGA Tour. It almost goes without saying, but of course, we couldn’t give our review of the Island View Casino sportsbook a favorable spin if the ‘book would not be set up to take bets on college sports, headlined by NCAA football – we are talking about the Deep South, after all!
The different wager types offered by the Island View Casino sportsbook are similarly comprehensive, with all the usual moneylines, totals (over/under) and against the spread (ATS) odds on single games being joined by special betting lines on high profile matchups, player and team specific proposition wagers, teasers and pleasers, among other, different wagers. Pretty much, if you are keen to get in on some sports betting action and you are in Gulfport for that purpose, then the sportsbook at the Island View Casino will have something for you. Veteran sports bettors will really be able to take advantage of the fantastic odds offered at this and other Mississippi sportsbooks and should be able to haul in some substantial winnings if all goes according to plan.
If we had to declare one aspect of the situation facing the activity of sports betting in Mississippi to be a little bit of a letdown, it would almost assuredly have to be the somewhat limited scope for mobile sports betting afforded by the Hospitality State’s laws regulating wagering on sports. That being said, you can legally place bets on your mobile device at the various Mississippi sportsbooks located around the state, but you will only be able to do so as long as you are actually inside the building where the ‘book of your choice is physically located. In the case of our review of the Island View Casino sportsbook, that means that you will either need to be on the gaming floor, in the newly renovated sports betting lounge or in one of the luxuriously appointed rooms (and there are more than 1,000 of them too between both casinos) if you want to use the sportsbook’s mobile betting app. The parking lots and garages at the casino property are off-limits.
It seems like a drag, and it is a drag, but there is a good reason for this not so expansive mobile betting consideration. Ultimately, Mississippi’s lawmakers, in their effort to pass a sports betting gambling expansion and get the practice legal and regulated with as little fuss as possible, decided it was not worth the fight with their colleagues that were against passing gambling expansion that included provisions for mobile betting. The fear is that if statewide mobile sports betting were available, that it would be too easy for underage players to get ahold of a sports betting product, which could possibly mean creating more problem gamblers and even gambling addicts as the young folks of today grew up.
All in all, it is not a horrible compromise, but it is a compromise. If you absolutely have to bet on sports using your smartphone or mobile device, then look no further than the legal offshore sportsbooks serving Mississippi residents like Bovada, BetOnline, SportsBetting, BetDSI or 5Dimes. All three have free to download mobile sports betting apps whether you use an Android or Apple smartphone or tablet, and – best of all – you won’t be running into any trouble with the law if you want to bet on sports without having to be at the Island View Casino or another of Mississippi’s fast-growing sportsbooks.
For the time being, we do not recommend that readers of our review of the Island View Casino sportsbook engage the services of a proxy betting business. While it is true that casino sportsbooks out in Nevada on the Las Vegas Strip do allow proxy betting – that is to say, contracting a company to place bets for you if you live out of state – Mississippi’s regulators have issued no such dictum saying that is it alright to do so in the Magnolia State. This is because there is an active debate going on right now as to whether or not proxy betting services by their very nature violate the Federal Wire Act’s prohibitions against a gambling-related business accepting wagers or even information about bets if that contact comes through any form of wired communications network.
However, time will tell if the Magnolia State’s lawmakers do announce some kind of a decision permitting sports bettors in Gulfport and elsewhere to use a proxy betting service if they so desire. In the meantime, we suggest that readers of our review of the Island View Casino sportsbook hold off on a proxy. Why risk running afoul of the law when Mississippi sportsbook are finally starting to become available – especially since you can just head over to an offshore sportsbook site like Bovada, BetOnline, SportsBetting, BetDSI or 5Dimes and achieve the same thing without all the fuss.
How Much Will It Cost To Have Sports Betting Weekend At Island View Casino?
When you want to make a weekend or short getaway out of sports betting at Island View Casino, you have options. There are two separate hotels depending on which casino location that you visit. Rates for a standard room start at $90 and can go up to around $300 depending on the weekend. Both hotel towers book up quickly, so you may want to look through the preferred hotel partners list. Within the actual casino(s) you can expect to find plenty of promotions for gaming, but there are not usually rewards for sports betting. As sports betting is still in its early stages for local casinos, comp points are not yet awarded for wagers. That being said, a weekend trip to the sportsbook at Island View Casino is not all that unreasonable. Of course, nothing beats being able to place bets from the comfort of your own home at online sportsbooks. Instead of gas, long lines, and hotel costs, you get huge bonuses, free bets, and (90% of the time) better odds at sites like Bovada or BetOnline.