Louisiana is moving a bill that could legalize sports betting

The SB130 bill, which drafts legislation proposing the legalization of sports betting in Louisiana, has been passed by senators with a vote of 29-8, a fairly wide margin that shows the lawmakers aren’t particularly opposed to the idea. While the bill itself has already passed the Senate, it has yet to get approval from the House of Representatives, meaning that nothing has been finalized yet.

Even if the bill passes, it will not come to fruition until 2021

Although the specific bill introduced by Senator J. Cameron Henry passed with little trouble, there are some intricacies regarding both the legalization and the bill itself. The Senator’s bill is drafted in a way that will have every Louisiana jurisdiction participating in the ballot. Yet, even if the bill is legalized and sports batting made possible state-wide, only those jurisdictions which voted in favor of the bill will be allowed to benefit from it by allowing gambling in their areas.

Because Louisiana’s lawmakers only create fiscal legislation in odd-numbered years, sports betting won’t actually be legalized before 2021 even if the SB130 passed beforehand. This is the closest Louisiana has gotten to legal sports betting since 2018, when 47 of the state’s 64 parishes voted in favor of a bill introduced by Senator Kirk Talbot to regulate daily fantasy sports. A dispute with Senator Daniel Martiny caused the bill to fall through, however. Senator Talbot also attempted to introduce sports gambling this year with a similar bill to the SB130, yet it was ultimately Senator Henry’s draft that made it through the Judiciary B Committee.

Source: IGBNorthAmerica.com