Review Of The Palace Casino Resort Sportsbook
All the locations for legal Mississippi sportsbooks in Biloxi have their own comparative strengths, weaknesses, and unique features that make them all worth a visit for the discerning sports betting enthusiast. However, a reader of our review of the Palace Casino Resort sportsbook will quickly uncover what makes this premier gambling establishment unique: the Palace is the only location on the strip in the so-called “Riviera of the Southland” at which there is no smoking allowed. That might seem like a bit of a mark against the Palace, but let’s face it, not every sports bettor or gambler wants to be bombarded with the smell and fog of tobacco smoke when they are waiting in line to place a wager on their favorite sports team or athlete.
Outside of this obvious selling point that sets the Palace apart from its competitors on the Gulf Coast Strip, our review of the Palace Casino Resort sportsbook will tackle several key issues of interest to most folks that find themselves interested in learning more about Mississippi sportsbooks in particular and sports betting generally. We will consider the most likely opening date when the Palace’s sportsbook will finally start taking action on sports and the kinds of sports that visitors and customers can bet on (as well as the different types of bets offered on those sports).
Finally, we will examine two pressing concerns for any prospective users of Mississippi sportsbooks that are still on the fence about playing at the Palace sportsbooks – whether or not you can wager on sports at the Palace using your smartphone or other mobile device and if it is allowable to use a proxy betting service when wagering on sports in Mississippi.
Like most other sportsbooks in Mississippi, the Palace Casino Resort sportsbook is now finally open for business! As soon as the US Supreme Court overturned the longstanding Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) in May of 2018 – which served as a federal ban prohibiting most states around the country from legalizing sports betting – the Magnolia State’s own sports betting regulations (passed preemptively way back in early 2017) were fast-tracked into effect, with MS becoming the third state post-PASPA to open sportsbooks to the public. Additionally, all the necessary regulations to appropriately and effectively govern and tax the activity of sports betting in Mississippi are in place and have been approved by all the requisite parties.
One of the more frequent terms that gets bandied about among enthusiasts of sports betting is “full-service betting” – and what that means is that the sportsbook so described offers wagers on all professional and collegiate sports (or most sports of those types, in this case) both nationally and internationally, as well as betting lines of all common types. We are happy to report in this review of the Palace Casino Resort sportsbook that the Palace Casino Resort Sportsbook does, in fact, offer full-service sports betting to all Biloxi residents and visitors.
The Mississippi state law that legalized and authorizes sports betting outlets in Biloxi and elsewhere in the Magnolia State makes it clear that all major professional sports (that includes the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL) can be and are represented on the betting boards in Biloxi and elsewhere. Additionally, the US PGA Tour, auto racing series like NASCAR, Formula 1 Championship racing, and the IndyCar Series are all available for betting at the sportsbook at the Palace Casino Resort and other Mississippi sportsbooks like it. Finally, with college sports – particularly football – being such a huge part of the Southern culture, it should come as no surprise that Mississippi sportsbooks will, of course, offer a full slate of college sports wagering opportunities. (In this, MS is actually somewhat unique, as the trend is that most states with legalized sports wagering do not allow their sportsbooks to offer action on any NCAA teams from inside their home states.)
As for the different wager types you will be able to choose from, our review of the Palace Casino Resort sportsbook verifies that all the usual single-game betting lines will be offered, meaning you can choose any combination of moneyline odds, points spread betting odds (ATS odds), and over/under betting lines on the combined total score of a given contest. Top-flight sportsbooks in Mississippi will also likely offer special betting lines on really high profile events as well as team props, player prop bets, teasers, pleasers, parlays, and everything in between.
There are several things you can expect at the Palace Casino Resort sportsbook. For one thing, the sportsbook itself has been opened in the site’s existing CONTACT Lounge, their on-site, state-of-the-art sports bar with over 50 giant HDTVs displaying matchups from all around the US and the rest of the world. Naturally, this has been rebranded as the CONTACT Lounge & Sports Book and is open for business to all bettors 21 years old or older.
There are also a few promotions, which are somewhat rare at this time among Biloxi sportsbooks and other MS sports betting venues. That said, there aren’t many promos to choose from, with the Palace Casino’s Gridiron Giveaway tying slots action into their new emphasis on the site’s sportsbook product. However, currently, the bonus options here and elsewhere in the state are fairly slim, as the marketing power of sportsbooks being brand new is adequate – for now – to pull customers in. In the future, expect the Palace Casino sportsbook to offer perks, promos, and comp points on sports bets as an inducement for garnering more customers and wagers when the novelty of “new” wears off.
One last thing: If you don’t live near Biloxi and are thinking about making a drive to the Palace Casino Resort to check out their CONTACT Lounge & Sports Book, make sure to do the math and know what you’re getting into. If you’re going only for the sports betting, expect to lose money on the trip. Hotel rooms range from weeknight rates of $70 to weekend rates of $200-plus, and after factoring in food and travel as well, you’re looking at a hit of around $600-$1000. Obviously, if you’re going to spend that just to put a few hundred dollars on a couple of games, you might break even at best. For the adventure itself, the money’s worth it, but if you just want to go to bet on sports legally, you can do that far more economically by simply signing up at a few legal offshore sportsbooks, shopping their lines, and placing your bets there. Either way, at least you now have the full gamut of choices to satisfy your Biloxi sports betting needs!
Among the few disadvantages to be found in the current operating Mississippi sports betting law is the somewhat limited provision for placing wagers on sports using one’s mobile device such as an iPhone, iPad, Android device, or other smartphone or tablet. This was a conscious decision on the part of Mississippi’s legislature when they passed the Magnolia State’s sports betting law in 2017 so that the process could be carried out with as little controversy as possible. This was considered necessary seeing as one of the primary concerns of even the state’s most ardent sportsbook-friendly politicians was that Internet and mobile sports betting would more easily put gambling into the hands of kids and underage young adults, thus setting them on the road to problem gambling later in life.
While it is true that you will be able to place wagers using your mobile device at Mississippi sportsbooks, we don’t want to give our readers the wrong impression in this review of the Palace Casino Resort sportsbook. You can use your Apple or Android smartphone or tablet to place sports wagers, but only inside the main facility in which the sportsbook is housed. That means that you will be unable to use your mobile device to place wagers in any of the parking lots or garages around the property, and you will similarly not be able to conveniently wager from home. However, we do not really expect this to be a feature of the state regulations for sports betting operations indefinitely, as there is quite simply too much of a motivation from the perspective of profits to ignore the mobile sports betting market for long.
In the meantime, if you wish to wager on sports but cannot make the trip to the Palace Casino Resort in Biloxi every time you want to put money on your favorite teams, there is a solution: online, offshore sports betting. This is 100% legal, is open to all MS residents aged 18 and older, and is free, safe, and secure. Sites like Bovada, SportsBetting, 5Dimes, BetOnline, and BetDSI have been serving MS residents for over a combined 100 years, and once you have a membership with one or more of these books, you can sign in, browse the boards, fill your account, and place your bets from anywhere in the state – and the entire US – that you happen to be
Simply put, the entire purpose of a proxy betting service is to offer out-of-state sports bettors a means of possibly getting around the prohibitions on interstate betting via the use of wired communications systems placed on the activity by the Federal Wire Act of 1961. This federal law, which is still in effect to this very day, basically was an attempt to curtail the illegal wagering activities of organized crime syndicates that made a huge chunk of change by fixing sporting events outright or rigging unfair betting practices via racketeering schemes. However, the Wire Act does not punish individual bettors, only betting organizations – which, in this case, would be the sportsbooks in Mississippi and elsewhere around the country.
The Palace Casino sportsbook may or may not accept proxy betting, and they are being tight-lipped about it in general. As such, there is plenty of room to doubt it either way because the Mississippi state laws legalizing sports betting and regulating the sports betting industry operators do not make it explicitly clear one way or another whether or not proxy betting is technically allowable. In our review of the Palace Resort Casino sportsbook, we are going to advise our readers to steer clear of proxy betting services until the Hospitality State comes out with some kind of an official ruling one way or another on this sometimes controversial topic. If you really cannot attend the Palace Casino Resort Sportsbook in person to place your bets, you are far better off simply using legal offshore options like Bovada and SportsBetting (and the other sites mentioned here) than you are messing around with a questionably-legal proxy betting scheme.