Louisiana Moves Forward on Plans to Launch Legal Retail Sports Betting

Dave Schwab Sports Betting Expert

3 minute read

The wait is almost over for Louisiana sports fans to legally bet on the games. The process to go live can be traced back to last November’s general election. The majority of the parishes in the state approved the measure through a voter referendum.

Louisiana is now coming up on the one year anniversary of that vote. To date, the state continues to work through the regulatory end of the process.

Unforeseen obstacles along the way have caused numerous delays. Hurricane Ida in late August did not help the cause. However, the Louisiana Gaming Control Board has kept things moving forward.

The LGCB remains optimistic that legal sports betting in the state’s casinos could go live in early October. Legal online sports betting would remain on hold as mobile operators move through the licensing process.

The LGCB has a 60-day window to review and approve mobile licenses. This opens the door to a partial launch of online betting later this year.

Legal sports betting in bars and restaurants via betting kiosks might have to wait until early next year.

Like many other states going through the legalization process, Louisiana had originally targeted early September to go live. Regulatory issues coupled with effects of the recent hurricane ended those plans.

The LGCB’s chairman is Ronnie Johns. He recently added the following comments in light of the current situation:

“We had been projecting late September, but our goal now is to have them up and running by Oct. 1.”

Johns was a former state senator from Lake Charles. He was appointed as the new chairman during this summer.

The Louisiana State Police Gaming Enforcement Division helps the LGCB regulate gaming in the state. Johns added that Hurricane Ida delayed the process about 10 days due to other priorities.

Emergency rules were approved in August for the state’s 20 land-based casinos. Louisiana has 15 riverboat casinos plus Harrah’s New Orleans. There are also four racetracks that can operate a legal retail sportsbook.

To date, eight of these gaming venues have gone through the licensing process according to the Gaming Control Board.

Johns also added:

“Mobile takes longer because the casinos use outside vendors to do that work, and those vendors haven’t been licensed yet, so they have to go through the suitability process and background checks with the State Police.”

The Louisiana Lottery Corp. has the task of overseeing legal sports betting in bars and restaurants. Legal wagers will be placed through on-site betting kiosks. The approval process for this form of legal sports betting will not be completed until November.

Written by Dave Schwab, our US Sports Betting Industry Expert. You can learn more about our author's expertise here.

Dave Schwab

Dave Schwab has been covering the sports betting industry for the past 12 years as the main focus of his specialty marketing company for online content. This endeavor followed a previous career in the field of sales and marketing in the wholesaling sector.Most of his weekly pieces focus on the rapidly expanding legal US sports betting industry. However, he still does extensive work covering betting angles that can provide a competitive edge to avid players. Dave believes that it is always a challenge to take past results and current form to try and correctly determine a future result. Sports brings out the unpredictability in what should be a fairly predictable outcome based on the stats, facts and recent trends in a particular matchup. More from Dave Schwab