A second campaign pushing sports betting as a way to fund education and more launched recently, this time in Louisiana.
Louisiana Wins hopes to drum up support for the November referendum that would legalize LA sports betting. The legislature would need to work out the details with a sports betting bill next year.
Along with education, the campaign suggests taxes from the annual $330 million in revenue could fund infrastructure improvements throughout Louisiana. That figure is the high side of a projection from Spectrum Gaming Group, which expects between $237 million and $332 million in annual operator revenue from sports betting.
Maryland was the first state to see an education-focused campaign to drive votes for a sports betting referendum. DraftKings Sportsbook and FanDuel Sportsbook are both funding “Vote Yes on Question 2.”
Big names backing Louisiana sports betting campaign
Five gaming companies contributed $975,000 to Louisiana Wins in September:
- Caesars, DraftKings and FanDuel each contributed $250,000.
- Penn National, which operates the Barstool Sportsbook brand, donated $125,000.
- Boyd Gaming, which has market access agreements with both MGM Resorts and FanDuel, contributed $100,000.
“The campaign will be supported by a broad coalition of gaming and casino operators across Louisiana,” said Richard Carbo of Carbo Consulting, a political consulting firm in Louisiana.
Residents not voting for local-approval only
The referendum vote will go a little differently in Louisiana than in Maryland.
Voters will only be voting to approve or deny sports betting in their parish, the local analogue to a county. It should pass in a majority of parishes, though, if the vote falls like the daily fantasy sports vote did in 2018. Of the state’s 64 parishes, 47 approved DFS contests.
The ‘yes’ vote isn’t everything, though. The legislature will have to pass two bills before sports betting can begin.
One is the enabling legislation with all the Louisiana sports betting details. The other is the taxation bill.
Hopefully for Louisiana residents, the sports betting bills move faster than the DFS ones. Even though DFS was approved in 2018, regulations for a legal market are still not live in the state.
