Sports fans in Louisiana will soon be able to bet on their favorite college and pro teams after the Legislature passed the final bill regulating wagers in parishes where voters approved the gambling expansion on the last day of the Legislative Session Thursday.
Components will include Las Vegas style sports books at the state’s casinos and racetracks, mobile Internet betting through smartphones and other devices and retail wagering kiosks at restaurants and bars.
Republican Senate President Page Cortez’s Senate Bill 247 regulates full on-site sports books, or betting areas, and the mobile applications for betting. It cleared the final hurdle with a 33-3 Senate vote Thursday.
SPORTS BETTING:Legal wagering is on its way to Louisiana. How will tax money be spent?
20 sports book licenses OK’d in Louisiana bill
Cortez’s bill makes 20 sports book licenses available with existing casinos and racetracks having first refusal option. Each of those licenses will include two “skins,” which will be used to contract with mob application providers.
House Bill 697 by Republican Rep. John Stefanski of Crowley to tax the wagers and provide for retail betting kiosks at restaurants and bars had already won final passage and has been signed into law by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards.
Edwards is also expected to sign Cortez bill.
When voters in 55 of Louisiana’s 64 parishes approved legalizing sports betting in their communities last fall, most thought they’d be able to place wagers on…
