Louisiana Sports Betting Guide

History of Louisiana Sports Betting

Although, in 2018, the Supreme Court decision in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which prevented states from allowing sports betting, sports betting in Louisiana remained illegal.  This continued all the way up until the November 2020 election, when voters chose to legalize sports betting in 55 of the 64 parishes.  The measure gained support from 1.3 million voters- or 65% of the state’s voters.

In October of 2021, casinos began taking sports bets in the 55 parishes that voted to approve sports betting.  Although there wasn’t much time left in the year, the state did bring in about $10 million in revenue, which is an impressive amount in a small sample size.  By the end of January 2022, sports betting in Louisiana was expanded to include online betting.  With data only available up for the first three months of the calendar year, the addition of online betting has increased Louisiana’s sports betting revenue to about $45 million so far in 2022.

What does this mean going forward?

Although sports betting is fairly new in the state of Louisiana, early returns have been positive, as the state has made almost $55 million in revenue over half a year.  The addition of online sports betting has been particularly important to that, as giving people the ability to place a bet wherever they are has led to a large revenue increase to begin 2022.

Following a strong start, look for revenue from sports betting to continue to grow.  While 9 of the 64 parishes did decline to allow sports betting, this could change in coming years after seeing the revenue increases in their neighboring parishes.  Although the addition of online sports betting hasn’t led to a revenue increase of $100 million monthly, as it did in New York, there has still been a significant enough increase to let us know that sports betting in Louisiana will not be going anywhere anytime soon.

How to bet in Louisiana

As previously stated, the first step to betting on sports in Louisiana would be to determine if you live in one of the 55 parishes where it is allowed.  Unlike the other 31 states with some form of legalized sports betting, Louisiana allowed each parish to vote on the measure individually, and did not legalize sports betting statewide.

For the first three months of legalized sports betting in Louisiana, residents could only place sports bets in ten casinos throughout the state.  Following the January 2022 addition of online sports betting, placing bets has become far more accessible, which has led to an uptick in revenue.  Six online sportsbooks launched near the beginning of the year.  These six sportsbooks were Caesars Sportsbook, DraftKings Sportsbook, FanDuel Sportsbook, BetMGM Sportsbook, BetRivers, and Barstool Sportsbook.  A seventh, WynnBET Sportsbook, opened the following month.  Bally Bet, Golden Nugget Sportsbook, FOX Bet, PointsBet, Betfred Sportsbook, and Fubo Sportsbook could all potentially launch in the second half of 2022.

Louisiana bettors are able to bet on all sporting events, including baseball, basketball, football, hockey, golf, tennis, soccer, boxing, MMA, auto racing, and horse racing.  This, combined with the recent addition of online sports betting, should create a significant growth in online sports betting throughout the state in coming years.