Mississippi Today

Mississippi welfare funds wound up in a Ghanaian gold bar hoax, court filing alleges

Published

1 year ago

December 19, 2023

Mississippi welfare officials for years directed federal funds intended to serve the state’s poorest residents to suspicious causes such as a university volleyball stadium, drug rehab for a former pro wrestler, a horse ranch for a former pro football player, and dozens of other things auditors have since flagged.

Text messages obtained by Mississippi Today and a new court filing reveal that the state’s welfare funds may have been lost in another stunning plot: an African heiress gold bar scam.

For the majority of 2019, the federal welfare funds quietly flowed to a pharmaceutical startup with questionable financial prospects. The payments are one component of civil litigation the state is bringing against dozens of people or companies that misspent or improperly received welfare funds.

A pleading filed Dec. 12 in the lawsuit alleges that the company’s founder, a defendant in the case, turned around and sent at least some of that money to an investment group in Ghana, Africa, for a venture that he thought would make him rich but turned out to be a scam.

The founder estimates he lost no more than $30,000 in company funds during a time when the company was primarily funded by a welfare grant, though it’s unclear how much of that amount may have originated from the federal funds. At that time, it would have taken a family of three 15 years to receive that much through the welfare program — a monthly check of $170 — which would have been impossible because the assistance maxes out after five years.

A defense attorney for another defendant recounted painstaking details of the hoax in his lengthy court filing, which alleges former Gov. Phil Bryant was behind the welfare department’s spending, including the intertwining of a drug manufacturing project with a federally-funded anti-poverty initiative. Bryant has repeatedly denied directing any of the welfare spending in question.

Jake Vanlandingham, a neuroscientist from Florida, founded a pharmaceutical startup called Prevacus in 2012 with the idea of developing a drug to treat concussions. To build up the company, he brought on former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, who himself suffered from concussions and used his platform as a famous athlete to raise awareness about the issue.

Favre and Vanlandingham would later take the project to then-Gov. Bryant and then secure $2 million in welfare funds through an economic development partnership that Bryant has tried to distance himself from since arrests in early 2020.

But before all that, the scientist became involved with an inventor who appears to have led him into a movie-like investment scam.

According to texts obtained by Mississippi Today, Vanlandingham began consulting with a man named Don Martin around 2017 to find additional funding and investors for Prevacus. Martin was based in Columbus, Ohio, and had his own concussion-related “smart helmet” venture.

He told Vanlandingham he was working on a deal with an investor named Daniella who owned land in Africa worth hundreds of millions that she was trying to sell to the government. Martin, now 71, told Mississippi Today last week that he met the supposed investor, a wealthy heiress from Ghana, when she reached out to him on Facebook.

Simultaneously, Vanlandingham said he was working to secure patents in China, to which he said he owed hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Through 2018, Martin had promised to secure an investment of $1 million out of the Ghana deal for Prevacus. That prospect, however far-fetched, was enticing to Vanlandingham, who said he needed the money to leverage an additional $2 million from the U.S. Department of Defense.

But after months of stringing the scientist along, Martin finally told Vanlandingham he would have to first put up $25,000 to help pay for a “geological analysis” for the land that Martin said his overseas investor required.

Vanlandingham tried to find the money, but the scientist’s contacts had dried up and he was experiencing deep personal financial problems, according to the texts. He was forced to sell his family’s home to pay the taxes for Prevacus, he said, and ask his mom for a loan to get into a rental. Martin tried to put him at ease by saying things like, “I know what we are doing is pleasing to God.”

Vanlandingham tried to get Favre to secure the $25,000 through an investment in Prevacus from one of his fellow professional athletes, but they wouldn’t bite.

Then Favre suggested they ask the then-Mississippi governor for help and offer him stock in the company. Bryant bit. The men met with several others for dinner in Jackson at Walker’s Drive-In in late December of 2018.

Days later on Jan. 2, 2019, the scientist and Favre met with then-welfare agency director John Davis and nonprofit operator Nancy New. There, they struck a deal — which Bryant denies facilitating — to push $1.7 million in federal welfare grant funds to Prevacus.

“Davis conferred with Bryant concerning using MDHS grant funds to benefit Prevacus,” alleges the court document filed Dec. 12 on behalf of New’s nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center. “Bryant, Davis, and other MDHS Executives directed, approved, facilitated, and furthered the use of MDHS grant funds … to benefit Prevacus.”

Bryant, who is suing Mississippi Today for defamation and has sent threats to the news outlet for continuing to report this story, declined through an attorney to answer questions about this story or respond to allegations in the latest court filing.

The concept was for Prevacus to locate its clinical trial site and eventually the drug manufacturing plant at Tradition, a real estate development and medical corridor on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Bryant would later become vice president of the venture, and the developer, Joe Canizaro, said he paid Bryant on retainer for consulting services for years after he left office.

The grant money for Prevacus didn’t come through instantaneously. “Is the grant submitted now? Have you been pre-approved? Are you confident funds will be within 48 hours?” Martin texted anxiously. “I need to update the attorneys.”

Vanlandingham assured Martin he’d secured the grant from Mississippi and the money was on its way. Martin said he was at peace “Knowing all is good and the communication with the grant lady is specific to distribution date.”

Vanlandingham had held Martin off for months as the hopeful inventor badgered Vanlandingham for some portion of the $25,000. But once Prevacus’ first payment of $750,000 in Mississippi welfare money came in mid-January 2019, Vanlandingham almost immediately wired an unspecified amount to Martin’s company ACTEX, texts show. “Wire sent your way. Make us proud,” Vanlandingham texted Martin on Jan. 23, 2019.

Vanlandingham texted another public official, Leonard Bentz, the director of South Mississippi Planning & Development District, formerly an elected public service commissioner for the southern district, who was at the meeting with Bryant in December.

“Hey brother lots of good stuff happening for us. 1.95M with the Governors help. We are excited. Good time to get investors!!!” Vanlandingham wrote in a never-before-published text. Bentz did not respond to this text. While he initially expressed enthusiasm about potentially finding funding for Prevacus at the Mississippi Development Authority, it wasn’t too long until Bentz stopped responding to Vanladingham altogether. Bentz said he was unaware welfare agency grant funds were used on the venture.

“I don’t think the governor and them have as much involvement as everybody’s making it out to be,” Bentz told Mississippi Today last week. “It is what it is, if those people who were managing those funds didn’t do right, then it sounds like the criminal justice system is going to get them for not doing right.”

Bentz added that if the concussion drug, which Prevacus has since sold to another company, ends up being legitimate, he still wants the manufacturing facility located in Mississippi. “Tell them we’d love to sit down with them,” he said.

For two weeks after Vanlandingham sent the funds to Martin, nothing happened until Martin explained “there is serious political unrest” in Ghana where his contact was located. He told Vanlandingham that Daniella was unsafe because there had been a rash of kidnappings of wealthy people in her region. Martin often discussed the plan to fly the wealthy heiress to the states, though he denied to Mississippi Today ever having a romantic relationship with the woman.

“The plan is first focus to get her to me safe,” Martin texted.

A week or so later, Martin broke the news to Vanlandingham that Ghana Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia had been in a serious car accident that killed his driver — a story news outlets widely reported but was later debunked. Another two weeks later, Martin said Daniella was in critical condition with malaria and depression. “They say she may not make it,” Martin said.

Vanlandingham sent another wire. “Bless you Jake! Daniella is better thanks to your thoughtfulness,” Martin responded. A month later, Martin asked for another $500, because “the government did not accept” the initial payment.

“This is it for me,” Vanlandingham responded. “I’m worried shitless this is a scam. I have until April 9th to pay 300k to China.”

By mid-April, Vanlandingham was saying, “I’m dead man … I owe 336k a week ago.”

But Martin had good news: their multi-million dollar payment was approved and ready to process, they just needed “a legal permit to the holding bank” which the government required “to meet compliance on source of monies.”

They were just short $4,000. The same day, April 18, 2019, New’s nonprofit sent Prevacus another $500,000.

The texts show Vanlandingham sent Martin another wire the next day. “Money cleared,” Martin texted, and Vanlandingham responded, “I’m counting on u brother.”

When Favre asked Vanlandingham for an update on Prevacus’ finances, the scientist responded, “Not much still pushing the African money.”

Then the attorney on the ground in Ghana who they were allegedly working with to close the deal asked for a $1,000 stipend. Martin relayed his message: “Please try your best and get me the 1k to survive on I have no one here.”

In mid-May, Prevacus received another $250,000 in Mississippi grant funds. About a week later, Martin offered more good news: he could increase his investment in Prevacus to $1.5 million “if you can wire $5k to me today or pay to accelerate.” Vanlandingham sent another wire.

“Man I’m stoked. … It’s our time!!!” Vanlandingham texted. Then, after receiving no money four days later, “Yo, my brother. I’m dying!!!”

Around the same time, the court filing shows that Vanlandingham was updating Prevacus investors about “clinical patient intake site at Tradition,” telling them, “A great deal of this has been funded with the help of folks in Mississippi including the Governor.”

In early June, Martin again told Vanlandingham they needed more money to close. Daniella had found two more parcels that the government wanted to add to the real estate deal, but Vanlandingham would have to put up another $8,000 in closing costs.

“What if we don’t?” Vanlandingham asked. Martin responded, “Wow…if we don’t then according to the attorney the government can get ugly and take the land.”

A few days later, Vanlandingham said he secured another investor and sent another wire to Martin. “Make us proud brother,” he texted.

A couple weeks later, the story went that there was a hold up at the bank. While the attorney, who they called Steven, was trying to wire the money, “the Ghana Media Coalition against illegal small-scale mining came up to Steven seeing the wire was a great deal of money stopping to question him…holding him until yesterday.”

“A friend of the Minister and Steven’s is putting up $17k for attorneys fees to clear Steven and release the wire,” Martin said.

Vanlandingham responded, “This sounds positive at some level?”

Now, Martin said, they needed to find an additional $18,000 to release the hold.

Vanlandingham began researching what are called “4-1-9” fraud schemes and found an article on the website for the U.S. Embassy in Ghana describing a scenario eerily similar to what he was experiencing.

The website states, “The goal of the criminal is to delude the target into thinking that he is being drawn into a very lucrative, albeit questionable, arrangement.”

Vanlandingham texted Martin a link to the article, explaining that he’d been looking into this “fraud stuff” where “it’s always ‘urgent’ and there’s always just ‘one more’ payment.”

Martin, whom the Dec. 12 court filing described as “unflappable”, responded by acknowledging the existence of such schemes — “Yes – there is…Steven told me all about it” — but then appeared to try to distract from the issue by describing in detail an unrelated illegal mining operation.

“…especially regarding the Chinese national at the heart of illegal mining in Ghana, … Nicknamed as the “galamsey queen”, … who was arraigned in Ghana in 2017 for engaging in illegal small-scale mining at Bepotenten in the Amansie Central District in the Ashanti Region, was later deported in December 2018 by the government,” Martin wrote.

A few days later, Vanlandingham began talking about involving the FBI “if this gets hung up much longer.”

When he suggested this to the lawyer in Ghana, Vanlandingham received the response, “You can report to FBI like you said am not scared sir am not a criminal if us every thing is for real you will regret thinking other wise.”

But the scientist proceeded with them earnestly. “Worse still, Martin had begun proposing unusual transactions,” the court filing reads. “For example, Martin told Vanlandingham that ‘[w]hen Steven wires to Prevacus $2k, you will wire back the $2k to same source he sent from then you will wire me 4500 … and I will wire him 4500 – closing same day.’”

The deal was falling apart, but Martin said Daniella had a backup plan: “the gold bars her father gave her before he died she is trying to sell … she sent me a Video.”

“So to be clear as of now we are betting on selling gold bars for me just to get my money back?” Vanlandingham texted.

The same day, on July, 16, 2019, Favre texted Gov. Bryant about funding for another pharmaceutical product he said New had promised to support but had apparently dropped. “Hey Governor we are in a little bit of a crunch. … Jake can explain more but bottom line we need investors and need your direction.”

“Will get with Jake.. will help all I can,” Bryant responded.

Also the same day, Prevacus received another $400,000 in Mississippi welfare money. New had told Vanlandingham, “I will need to let Brett know that we will need to pull this from what we were hoping to help him with [volleyball]….”

That evening, Favre visited Bryant. On his way, Favre texted Bryant, “I really need your help with Nancy and Jake. I’ll be mowing your lawn for years after this!!”

“You my man… we are all in..” Bryant responded.

After seeing Favre that night, Bryant texted New, “Just left Brett Favre. Can we help him with his project. We should meet soon to see how I can make sure we keep your projects on course.”

Favre thanked Bryant and the governor responded that he had scheduled a meeting with New and arranged a call with the White House. “This can help with our concussion project,” the governor wrote.

The court filing points out, “Again, Bryant described Prevacus as ‘our … project.’”

The next day, Martin forwarded the video of the gold bars to Vanlandingham. In it, a man intentionally displays his hand with two large rings on his pinky and ring fingers as another man in a suit bends down to open a gray safe on the floor to reveal the bars.

Vanlandingham reviewed the video and responded, “You-Tube? FBI time?”

The attorney representing New’s nonprofit, who wrote the latest court filing, alleged that Vanlandingham communicated with Favre and Bryant about the Ghana situation.

“Based on information and belief, Vanlandingham spoke to Bryant concerning his investment in Ghana and its importance to Prevacus,” the filing reads.“Based on information and belief, the Prevacus funds that Vanlandingham invested in Ghana included grant funds from the State of Mississippi.”

“Good news,” Vanlandingham texted Martin on July 19, 2019. “I’m pretty good friends with the Governor and he has direct access to Stephanie Sullivan the US ambassador to Ghana. We can run communication through the Governor and get these thieves!!!!”

The latest court filing then highlights the fact that Bryant traveled to Ghana less than a month later in August 2019. Documents obtained by Mississippi Today show, however, that Bryant’s trip to Ghana and bordering Togo was planned beforehand and dealt with strengthening trade ties between Mississippi and West Africa.

“During his remarks, he (Bryant) said, a lot of investors based in Mississippi are interested in doing business in Ghana, the reason for which he is in the country to build an economic and investment bridge to facilitate future trade,” reads a press release from the American Chamber of Commerce-Ghana.

Bryant traveled to Ghana with the CEO of a south Mississippi-based product called Sparta Mosquito Eradicator to discuss selling the company’s product to the country to deal with malaria outbreaks. Vanlandingham’s attorney George Schmidt told Mississippi Today last week that Bryant did not travel to the country on behalf of Prevacus and that the timing of the trip was a coincidence.

While Bryant was in Ghana, though, he continued to consult Favre on how to secure funds from the state welfare agency for the construction of a volleyball stadium at University of Southern Mississippi — another project at the center of the scandal.

“Taking off from Ghana so this may be my last message for a while,” Bryant texted Favre Aug. 16, 2019.

Back in the states, Vanlandingham complained to Martin that, “You have put my (sic) in a fraudulent situation with my company … I gave u company money not returned on my books.”

But Vanlandingham continued to inquire on the sale of the gold bars until Martin finally told him they’d been confiscated. The scientist finally snapped, saying, “Wow. What a joke. You got played. I’ll do fbi myself brother. … Pitiful for me to have been involved … What makes me the most furious is u never raised money for Actex. It also makes me curious to your involvement.”

“U continued to take me down satans road,” Vanlandingham said.

Yet Vanlandingham still kept hoping for something to turn around. Two days later, he texted, “I’m pretty devastated please share any progress. I’m out 120k with nothing to show for it.”

Martin said Daniella reached out to a Greek investor who might be willing to put up the money to release the wire. “Wow!!!!” Vanlandingham responded. “Bring it home brother!!!”

Vanlandingham wired another $1,000, supposedly to match what the Greek investor planned to put up towards the closing costs. But then the heiress told Martin that the investor had backed out, and implored him to find the money himself. “If you really can please do honey because we are at the edge of closing,” Daniella said, according to a message Martin forwarded to Vanlandingham.

“So did I throw away another 1k?” Vanlandingham asked.

When Vanlandingham asked where the money went, Martin responded that “Daniella is tired and not well.”

This went on for several more months, despite Vanlaningham’s stated connections to authorities in Ghana. The game continued even after investigators from the State Auditor’s Office began questioning Vanlandingham as part of the Mississippi welfare scandal. After New and Davis were arrested in February of 2020 on embezzlement charges partially related to the Prevacus payments, Vanlandingham and Martin were still discussing traveling to Berlin to get $300,000 for the scientist out of the Bank of Ghana.

From the texts, it’s hard to discern if Martin, who was at least initially reluctant to alert the authorities, was complicit, or if he, too, was swindled. Asked for comment for the story, Vanlandingham said he would contact his counsel but said by text that “Dons a good guy with interesting technology.”

Vanlandingham’s lawyer, Schmidt, told Mississippi Today last week that his client’s payments to the Ghana deal totaled no more than $30,000. The lawyer said he was unaware those funds originated from the welfare program.

Martin told Mississippi Today by phone last week that he’d fallen for the scam and that he never received a dime from the Ghana investor group. He couldn’t say how much in total he’d received from Vanlandingham, all of which he said he sent to Ghana, and that also he didn’t know the money potentially originated from federal grant funds earmarked for Mississippians. But when Martin finally filed a police report, he estimated his total losses at $500,000.

An incident report Martin provided to Mississippi Today shows he reported the scam to the Powell Police Department in Ohio in May of 2022 and the local police department forwarded the case through the FBI to the authorities in Ghana. “I advised Mr. Martin that this was a known scam and he would not be likely to get his money back,” reads the officer’s report.

By the end, it had gotten worse. Martin said the Ghanaians had threatened to kidnap his daughter, and forced him to max out his credit cards purchasing products like laptops and iPhones for them. The police report shows that even after Martin initially reported the incident, the scammers told him there was a warrant for his arrest and convinced him to send $40,000 to remove the warrant. Martin said he’s in $140,000 worth of credit card debt. He also said he experienced a fire in 2021 and he’s been living in the dilapidated house, exposed to the elements with no heat or water.

“I’m totally broke,” Martin told Mississippi Today on Dec. 14.

Martin is still promoting his helmet invention and company, ACTEX, but he’s never raised the money to develop a prototype. He explained that the main reason he fell for the Ghana hoax, which went on for about three years, is his strong faith in God and the belief that he was created for a purpose.

“The way I looked at it was, God works in unusual ways. See, because ACTEX is dedicated for God’s kingdom. And it’s there to save lives and to help people. That’s part of my mission statement. So I kept thinking, ‘Well, okay.’ Because I prayed about it. (And God said), ‘Yes, this is what I want you to do.’ ‘Yes, yes, yes.’”

Martin still believes that he acted in obedience of the Lord and that “he’ll bless ACTEX and many doors will open.”

Meanwhile, the Mississippi welfare funds allegedly lost to the Ghanaians in the scam have yet to be recovered. New and her son have pleaded guilty to felonies for pushing welfare funds to Prevacus. Vanlandingham and Favre are facing civil charges. Bryant has not faced criminal or civil charges. The criminal investigation is ongoing.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

Auditor alleges mismanagent of funds by health department

Published

15 hours ago

May 8, 2025

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-05-08 10:36:00

by Gwen Dilworth, Mississippi Today
May 8, 2025

Three nonprofits received over $850,000 in federal grants for HIV prevention between 2021 and 2024 but administered only 35 HIV tests during that period, State Auditor Shad White alleges in a report released Monday.

The report identified reimbursements for alcohol, late-night rideshares, purchases from a smoke shop, the rental of a nightclub owned by one group’s executive director and a declined payment for gift cards. All of the payments were approved by the Mississippi Department of Health, the agency responsible for overseeing distribution of the funding to community-based organizations.

“The lapses identified are unacceptable and not reflective of our agency’s standards or mission,” the health department said in a press release Monday.

The agency could not produce monthly reports for grant activities or documentation of hundreds of thousands of dollars of expenses, the report said. Nor could it provide all of the funding agreements or say whether the organizations were aware they were required to report testing data, a spokesperson for the auditor’s office told Mississippi Today.

The grant funding was meant to help states establish and maintain HIV prevention and surveillance programs, and HIV testing was an element of each organization’s agreement. The grants also paid the nonprofits to educate the public about HIV and hire community health workers.

Mississippi has the sixth highest rate of new HIV diagnoses in the country, and the majority of the state’s prevention efforts are funded with federal dollars.

“It’s almost like our government hates us,” said Auditor Shad White in a press release. “This kind of spending defies all common sense and is an insult to hardworking taxpayers.”

Lorena Quiroz, the executive director of Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity, said the nonprofit submitted all required monthly reports and expense documentation to the health department.

Love Inside for Everyone and Love Me Unlimited 4 Life, the other two organizations investigated by the state auditor, did not respond to questions from Mississippi Today.

None of the organizations referenced in the audit report still have grants or contracts with the health department, and the agency has already taken steps to hire new leadership in its STD/HIV division and tighten management of grants, it said in a press release.

The audit probes a period when the health department’s STD/HIV division was severely understaffed after public health priorities shifted to the COVID-19 pandemic and skyrocketing syphilis cases in the state. Around the same time, the health department began receiving tens of millions of dollars in additional federal funding for HIV prevention efforts as a part of an initiative launched by President Donald Trump during his first term in office to end the domestic HIV epidemic.

But the funding increases have resulted in only a slight dent in new HIV cases. New diagnoses dropped 5% in the first three years of reported data since the state began receiving the additional federal dollars, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data published by AIDSVu – far from keeping up with the federal government’s ambitious goals of reducing new diagnoses 75% by 2025 and 90% by 2030.

Increasing HIV testing in community settings is one of the plan’s core strategies.

Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity, a Jackson nonprofit that advocates for immigrant and indigenous communities in Mississippi, was contracted to take steps to become a rapid HIV testing site, but did not conduct any tests because the health department did not provide a phlebotomist, Quiroz told Mississippi Today in an email.

It is unclear why the organization would have required a phlebotomist, as rapid tests are administered with a finger prick or saliva. Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity did not respond to a follow-up question for clarification.

Quiroz said HIV testing materials worth $11,412 were lost in a storm that destroyed the organization’s building and roof. The storm occurred in June 2023, one month before the nonprofit’s agreement with the health department ended and 10 months after the supplies were purchased.

Health department records showed that Love Inside for Everyone, a LGBT+ advocacy nonprofit, performed 35 HIV tests between 2021 and 2024.

Love Unlimited 4 Life, a transgender advocacy organization no longer in operation, recieved grant funding between 2021 and 2023 for the salaries of two community health workers. Health department records showed that no HIV tests were administered by the organization.

The nonprofits’ grant agreements also included education and testing events. The auditor’s report called several events “questionable,” including a Latinx pride month and HIV awareness event hosted by Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity that exceeded its proposed budget and included alcohol purchases in a request for reimbursement.

Love Inside for Everyone used grant funding to rent Metro 2.0, a nightclub owned by the organization’s executive director, Temica Morton, a possible conflict of interest.

Due to the health department’s lack of grant monitoring, it could not say if HIV testing or awareness activities occurred at the events, the auditor’s office said.

Several federal grants Mississippi relies on for HIV prevention efforts have been cut or destabilized since the Trump administration took office earlier this year. Public health experts have argued these cuts will undermine HIV testing activities.

White said the audit shows that the Trump administration’s cuts to HIV prevention efforts have been unfairly criticized in a video on Fox News Digital.

“Our audit shows that when you dig into how this money is actually being spent, it’s not actually helping people with HIV/AIDs, it’s not helping to test people for HIV, it’s instead being wasted,” White said.

The health department reiterated the importance of community partners to advancing public health goals in a statement.

“It is important to underscore that these findings do not reflect the value of many nonprofit partners we continue to work with across Mississippi. Partnerships remain critical to our public health mission.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Auditor alleges mismanagent of funds by health department appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Right

The article focuses on State Auditor Shad White’s audit of the Mississippi Department of Health’s management of federal HIV prevention funds, detailing allegations of mismanagement, misuse of funds, and a lack of oversight. The tone and framing of the piece, particularly White’s statements criticizing the health department’s actions and the Trump administration’s cuts to HIV prevention funding, suggest a critical stance towards government inefficiency. However, it also provides the health department’s response, stating the importance of community partnerships and clarifying that not all nonprofit partners are at fault. The overall presentation is fact-based but leans towards a critique of government spending and management, which aligns with a center-right perspective critical of governmental waste and inefficiency.

Mississippi Today

‘A casino in every pocket’: Mississippi illegal online sports betting thrives as legalization stalls

Published

17 hours ago

May 8, 2025

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-05-08 09:11:00

by Michael Goldberg, Mississippi Today
May 8, 2025

On the heels of the Legislature’s most recent failed attempt to legalize mobile sports betting in Mississippi, a 52-year-old gambling enthusiast named Gary drew a distinction between himself and his fellow bettors: He is a winner, and most of them are losers.

“To say it honestly, most people are losers when it comes to sports betting because they lose control. But I hope they legalize it because I have control over my gambling,” Gary said. “Certain members of my family call me a degenerate, but I guarantee you I’m not a losing sports bettor.”

Gary, whose full name Mississippi Today agreed not to publish so he could speak candidly about placing illegal sports bets, is among the Mississippi residents who have together placed, according to some analysts, billions of dollars in online sports bets through illicit offshore betting platforms. He is also among the dozens of people who told Mississippi Today, in a written survey and interviews, about what legalization would mean for those who currently bet illegally.

What emerged is a portrait of the state’s shadow sports betting economy alongside growing concern among experts about the potential for gambling addiction.

A thriving black market

The push to legalize mobile sports betting in Mississippi has prompted a debate that has captured the attention of powerful moneyed interests and ordinary citizens alike. It has unfolded in bustling casinos on the Coast, church pews in the Delta and the group text chains of sports-obsessed college students.

Favorable regulatory and technological shifts have led to rapid growth for the online gambling market in recent years. But the industry continues to be undercut by illegal operators. Online gross gaming revenue in the U.S. topped $90 billion in 2024, $67 billion of which went to unlicensed players, according to research commissioned by the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, a group that lobbies against illegal gambling.

Mobile sports betting statewide has remained illegal in Mississippi, largely due to fears that legalization could harm the bottom line of the state’s casinos and increase gambling addiction. In 2024, illegal online betting in Mississippi made up about 5% of the national illegal market, which is about $3 billion in illegal bets in Mississippi, proponents said that year.

From the start of the most recent NFL season to about March, Mississippi had recorded 8.69 million failed attempts to access legal mobile sportsbooks in other states, according to materials presented to House members at a legislative meeting.

Those who engage in illegal online sports gambling and spoke to Mississippi Today described a black market that bridges newfangled technologies with the illicit gambling practices of yesteryear. Some use “arbitrage betting tools” and virtual private networks, or VPNs, to bet across the globe on different sites, pitting casinos against each other. Others keep themselves a degree removed from placing bets directly, using “bookies” to place bets on offshore gambling sites.

However people place illegal sports bets, the persistence of a thriving black market and an estimated $40 million to $80 million a year in tax revenue legal sports betting could bring in has prompted a fierce push for lawmakers to legalize the practice. The sports gambling lobby, as it has done in other states, has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Mississippi politicians trying to win the Legislature’s support.

The Mississippi House in 2023 and 2024 passed legislation legalizing online betting, but it died in the Senate.

Some form of sports betting is legal in 40 states, though only 20 have full online betting with multiple operators, according to Action Network, a sports betting application and news site. Some states have only in-person betting, and some only have a single online operator. Mississippi permits sports betting, but it only allows bets made in person at casinos or bets made with apps on mobile devices while inside casinos.

That is how Greg, 38, placed his bets in Mississippi.

‘Hyper-targeted victimization’

Greg earned his master’s degree at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi. When he was a student, Greg would make the roughly one-hour drive north to Tunica, home of several casinos along the Mississippi River. The area was one of the first to capitalize after Mississippi enacted the Mississippi Gaming Control Act in the early 1990s, which legalized dockside casino gambling.

For Greg, driving through the rural Delta landscape to a casino was as a guardrail against over-indulgence, one that has been lost with the advent of smartphones and easy access to offshore betting platforms.

“That’s a conscious effort, that you think the whole way, ‘is that money you need to be gambling or losing, versus (now) when you’re dialing it up on your phone,” he said.

Greg has since moved to Kansas, a state that fully legalized mobile sports betting. He now bets on football and college basketball two to four times a week with wagers ranging from $55 to $500. He places bets on three different apps, all of which compete with special promotions enticing him to return. These deals are not typically matched by brick-and-mortar casinos

“I can’t imagine walking into the Horseshoe in Tunica and them saying, bet $100 cash and we’ll give you a free $50.”

Online betting is conducive to marketing campaigns that are precise in their execution and relentless in their frequency, experts told Mississippi Today. The rise of mobile sports betting has been accompanied by the introduction of new technologies in advertising and marketing, including those buoyed by artificial intelligence.

“You can absorb their betting patterns and use AI to predict when to send that notification reminding them to place a bet,” said Dan Durkin, an Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Mississippi. “It’s hyper-targeted victimization, let’s just call it what it is.”

Durkin is chair of the steering committee for the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics, an organization that works to promote student well-being in intercollegiate athletics. The coalition has monitored the spread of mobile sports betting as college campuses have become hubs of activity for sports betting and, increasingly, gambling addiction.

According to a 2023 survey conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, sports wagering is pervasive among college students, with 67% of students betting on sports. Nearly 60% of students are likely to bet on sports after seeing an advertisement, the survey found.

And more than 60% engaged in sports gambling are betting on sports using highly addictive “in game/micro bets.” This type of betting allows users to wager on specific in-game moments, such as the next football play or golf swing. That sort of betting would become easier if sports betting is legalized because, under current law, many bettors say they still rely on bookies to place bets on offshore gambling sites for them.

These forms of online gambling, made seamless and accessible through digital apps, can allow addiction to fly under the radar.

Gambling addiction has the highest suicide rate of any addiction disorder, according to the National Institutes of Health. The disorder’s ability to fester in private makes intervention more daunting, Durkin said.

PODCAST: Mississippi citizens often left in the dark on special-interest lobbying of politicians

“If you have a drug problem, you are going to have physical symptoms. If you have an alcohol problem, you are going to have physical symptoms. Gambling disorder can remain hidden for a very long time. Most of the folks that have it stay very functional,” Durkin said.

“Until they’re not.”

‘Gambler is going to find a way to bet’

For some students, the appeal of mobile sports betting stems not from cleverly-constructed digital marketing schemes, but as a source of camaraderie.

Cole, a 19-year-old college student, likes to bet on soccer and March Madness and the NBA Playoffs. He and a group of friends recently placed bets on the Master’s golf tournament

“It’s fun to do with your friends cause you’re all watching the game together, you get that adrenaline rush, and you celebrate together,” he said. “It’s not life-changing money, it’s mostly a social thing.”

Nevertheless, some Mississippi universities have become so alarmed by the rise of online gambling on their campuses, they are taking steps to prepare for increased addiction, even as mobile sports betting remains illegal. In Oxford, the University of Mississippi plans to hire a gambling clinician to help students struggling with addiction, according to The Daily Mississippian.

Influential religious institutions in Mississippi, a Bible Belt state, have long opposed the spread of gambling, a stance many retained as mobile sports betting came before the Legislature.

During the 2025 legislative session, David Tipton, District Superintendent for the Mississippi District United Pentecostal Church, sent a letter to the Mississippi Legislature opposing legalization on the grounds that it would harm young people in particular.

“The introduction of mobile sports betting would represent the most significant expansion of gambling in Mississippi since the legalization of casinos over thirty years ago,” Tipton wrote. “This development would effectively place a casino in the pocket of every Mississippian, creating new challenges, particularly for our youth and young adults who are the most vulnerable to gambling-related harm.”

Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the country, and the extent to which that calls for an added layer of caution lies at the heart of the debate between proponents and opponents of legalization.

Mississippi Speaker of the House Jason White and staff were treated to the Super Bowl by company lobbying for legalized online gambling.

“I’m a libertarian. It’s not my job to tell people how to live their life,” said Gary, the 52-year-old sports gambler. “If you can’t control yourself, I’m sorry, learn some control. Is that brutal? Probably, yes. If you want help, there’s way to get help. You can self-ban yourself.”

Gary says every gambler is responsible for managing their own “leak.”

The term often refers to a consistent weakness in a bettor’s strategy, but Gary also uses it to connote a weakness of will.

“Every gambler has a leak, as we call them. Drugs, women, money, strippers, or the dice table, which was my leak. I could win every sports bet, but I’m going to walk through the casino and go to the dice table and lose money on a dice table,” Gary said.

“The Legislature, in their great, infinite wisdom, where they say they are protecting people, they’re not protecting anybody except casinos. A gambler is going to find a way to bet.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post 'A casino in every pocket': Mississippi illegal online sports betting thrives as legalization stalls appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

This article presents a balanced view of the debate surrounding mobile sports betting in Mississippi. It reports on both the arguments for and against legalization without strongly endorsing one side over the other. The piece discusses the perspectives of individuals, including sports bettors and opponents from religious institutions, as well as financial considerations and public health concerns. While there are references to lobbying and the role of lawmakers, the article primarily focuses on providing a factual overview of the situation without exhibiting clear ideological leaning. The language remains neutral and factual throughout the piece.

Mississippi Today

Mental health cuts threaten program for moms

Published

2 days ago

May 7, 2025

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-05-07 06:00:00

by Allen Siegler, Mississippi Today
May 7, 2025

DUBLIN — Pregnant with her second child and entering addiction treatment at a Coahoma County residential program in 2019, Katiee Evans worried she had ruined her life beyond repair. The Columbus native had struggled for years with methamphetamine addiction, a disorder that led the state to take custody of her then-7-month-old daughter.

Evans didn’t complete treatment after giving birth to her first child, but the prospect of remaining with her newborn motivated her to try it again. This time, she stayed sober during her second pregnancy – which she credits to being surrounded by dozens of other new parents going through the program, many of whom had their children with them.

“I got to love on my baby, and everybody else’s baby,” she said.

Since then, Evans has reunited with her first child, given birth to a third baby and stayed sober. She now works for Fairland, the addiction treatment center that served her, helping to administer the program she credits with stabilizing her life.

But a major source of funding for this program has been cut. In March, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration abruptly stopped distributing billions of public health dollars across the country. About $4.1 million of that was for Mississippi’s community mental health centers, organizations across the state that run services including the addiction treatment program Evans attended.

A federal district judge has temporarily blocked the cuts, but the ruling only applies to the 23 states that sued the federal government, not Mississippi.

“This announcement caught us off guard,” said Adam Moore, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, the agency that administers state and federal funds to the centers.

The centers’ services — including crisis response teams, adolescent support and development disability programs — are available regardless of people’s ability to pay. That’s possible in large part, center directors say, because of funds like the halted grants. Moore said that about 43% of the dollars the state’s mental health department provided centers in the 2024 fiscal year came from the federal government.

A spokesperson for the federal government’s mental health agency said Mississippi’s money was granted to address the pandemic, which is no longer a threat to the U.S. She said a new federal agency called the Administration for a Healthy America will prioritize mental health efforts.

The Region 6 center, which serves much of the Delta and runs the Fairland clinic, is expected to lose out on just over $850,000 in federal funds, according to the Mississippi Department of Mental Health.

Joanne Shedd discusses her journey through addiction and rehabilitation at the Fairland Center in Dublin, Miss., on Monday, April 28, 2025.

Part of the program that provided financial assistance for mothers and children to transition to independent housing had to be shut down in March as a result of the loss of funding. Phaedre Cole, the region’s executive director and Mississippi Association of Community Mental Health Centers president, said she’s uncertain whether the state agency would replace the money for that service.

Joanne Shedd, a Fairland peer support specialist who also completed treatment at the center, said it can be nearly impossible to find housing options for new mothers and their children without that additional resource.

“Our whole game plan that we have with these clients has got to completely change,” she said.

CMHCs struggled to stay afloat before federal cuts

Mississippi’s community mental health centers have struggled to fund their services for years. Four have closed since 2012. Cole said consolidations have created more financial strain on her center, which has grown from serving eight to 16 counties over the past dozen years.

Another four of the remaining 11 centers have little on-hand money to buffer any funding losses, according to the Mississippi Office of the Coordinator of Mental Health Accessibility’s latest quarterly report.

Cole said much of this financial instability comes from the responsibilities of community mental health centers: the Department of Mental Health tasks them with being the “primary service providers of outpatient community-based services” for kids and adults with mental health needs in every county they serve.

“No one’s providing those safety net services that we provide,” Cole said.

That means they maintain programs that are critical but expensive, including crisis stabilization unit beds and the Fairland program.

A sign marks the Fairland Center in Dublin, Miss., on Monday, April 28, 2025. The facility was part of Region I Mental Health Center before being absorbed by Region 6 and is affiliated with Sunflower Landing.

While Cole said the maternal substance use program is costly, it addresses a disorder that can lead babies to be born prematurely, underweight and with birth defects if untreated. Substance use is also the second leading cause of Mississippi’s pregnancy-related deaths, according to the state’s most recent maternal mortality report.

The Delta, where Fairland is located, has the highest rates in the state of mothers dying during pregnancy and the postpartum periods.

In Oxford, Melody Madaris leads Communicare, the Region 2 Community Mental Health Center for six Mississippi counties. She said the majority of Communicare’s patients can’t pay for the center’s services, and her organization provided nearly $7 million of free care last year.

Because the organization relies heavily on federal funds, Madaris was shocked when she found out the federal mental health agency stopped hundreds of thousands of dollars Communicare was set to receive.

“It was absolutely terrifying,” she said. “Within a day, we started looking at our budget and how we can continue to provide services at the same level.”

Communicare is now unable to staff a diversion coordinator, an employee dedicated to working with judges overseeing mental illness-related civil commitment cases. The diversion coordinator helped people in this position and their family members determine if the person could get treatment in a community setting and avoid state hospital commitment.

It’s the type of service the Department of Justice accused Mississippi of not doing enough of in its seven-year lawsuit against the state’s Department of Mental Health. Although the lawsuit was overturned in 2023, the mental health department’s executive director has said avoiding unnecessary hospitalizations remains a priority for the agency.

“A lot of CMHCs had a lot of success with that role,” Madaris said. “When the federal government stopped those grants, that role stopped.”

Moore, the Mississippi mental health department’s spokesperson, said the agency continues to fund 33 similar roles, called court liaisons, across the state. He also said the agency plans to use state alcohol tax revenue and other federal grant funds to try to fill the gaps, but there’s not enough to fully cover the lost dollars.

“You can backfill and keep things going on a short term basis,” said Mississippi Senate Public Health Committee Chairman Hob Bryan, D-Amory. “But long term, if the federal funding goes away, then those services are going to go away.”

State House Public Health and Human Services Committee Chairman Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, said he and other state lawmakers had assumed these funds would be available until September.

A man speaking into a microphone. — Rep. Sam Creekmore, the new chairman of the Mississippi House Public Health and Human Services Committee, speaks during a committee meeting at the State Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024.

“It does not seem fair,” he said. “We have a real, real need for mental health services in Mississippi, and I hate that this has happened. But it kind of seems par for the course, the way things are going with this Trump Administration right now.”

Creekmore noted that in its last regular session, the Legislature passed a law that instructs the state to apply for a federal community mental health payment model that allows Medicaid to reimburse more for services. But it’s up to the federal government to approve Mississippi’s application.

‘This is life or death for people’

Two women sitting on a couch. One is speaking. — Phaedre Cole, president of the Mississippi Association of Community Mental Health Centers, right, listens as Katiee Evans talks about her recovery at the Fairland Center in Dublin, Miss., on Monday, April 28, 2025.

Cole, the Region 6 executive director, said it would dramatically help Community Health Center operations if Mississippi’s application is approved next year. But she worries more drastic cuts could be coming – ones that would cripple the centers completely.

She said centers like Region 6 receive other funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, a source of federal COVID-19 relief funds, and those contracts are set to end next year. If that money is also canceled, Cole said the state mental health centers would likely have to cut more services.

Additionally, the U.S. House of Representatives has adopted a resolution to cut $880 billion over the next 10 years from agencies including Medicaid, the federal and state partnership that provides health insurance to over half a million Mississippians. Cole said Region 6 receives over half its funding from Medicaid, and any cuts to the program could be “disastrous” for community mental health centers.

For Evans, the Columbus mother who was treated at Fairland, she wishes decision makers would visit Mississippi’s Community Mental Health Centers before cutting their funding.

While people treated there, like those with severe mental illness, can’t always travel to Washington to advocate for themselves, she said it’s easy to see the deep impact programs like the one that saved her life have once one is inside the building.

“This is life or death for people. There’s no other way around it.”

Community Health Reporter Gwen Dilworth contributed to this story.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Mental health cuts threaten program for moms appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This article presents a sympathetic portrayal of the impact of federal mental health funding cuts on vulnerable populations in Mississippi, particularly mothers recovering from addiction. The narrative centers on personal stories and expert commentary to emphasize the value of these programs and the risks of defunding them. While it includes criticism of the Trump Administration’s policies—particularly a quote blaming the current administration—it largely focuses on reporting factual developments and quotes from stakeholders. The framing, however, tends to highlight the negative consequences of conservative policy decisions, aligning it with a Center-Left perspective.