Louisiana

Last verified September 27, 2026

By the Legal Sportsbooks US editorial team

Louisiana

Online and retail

Legal since

October 6, 2021 (retail); January 28, 2022 (online)

Minimum age

Regulator

Louisiana Gaming Control Board

Licensed apps

10 licensed online sportsbooks

State law

La. R.S. 27:601 et seq. (Louisiana Sports Wagering Act, Act 440 of 2021)

Is sports betting legal in Louisiana?

Yes, in 55 of Louisiana's 64 parishes. Voters approved it parish by parish on November 3, 2020, and lawmakers passed the Louisiana Sports Wagering Act (Act 440 of 2021) and two companion laws the next year. The first retail bet was taken October 6, 2021 at Paragon Casino Resort in Marksville, and mobile betting began January 28, 2022. You must be 21, and apps are geofenced out of the nine parishes that voted no: Caldwell, Catahoula, Franklin, Jackson, La Salle, Sabine, Union, West Carroll and Winn.

Where you can bet

The Louisiana Gaming Control Board's list of licensed wagering platforms names 10 sportsbook permittees: Caesars Sportsbook, BetMGM, FanDuel, TwinSpires, bet365, ESPN Bet, DraftKings, BetRivers, Bally Bet and Fanatics Sportsbook. Each licensed casino or racetrack may contract with up to two platform providers for mobile wagering, and every online bet has to come from someone the operator has confirmed is 21, inside Louisiana and in a parish that approved sports betting.

In person, sportsbooks sit in a sports wagering lounge at a licensed property. The law caps commercial licenses at 20 and gave first call to the land-based casino in New Orleans and the 15 riverboat licensees, with the state's four racetracks making up the other four. Tribal casinos take bets under their compacts with the state.

College games are on the board, in-state teams included. A Board bulletin signed in April 2024 removed any prop on an individual college athlete's performance from the wagering catalog, effective 8:00 a.m. on August 1, 2024, so only team-level college props remain.

Online operators have paid 21.5% of net gaming proceeds since August 1, 2025, up from 15%, under Act 298 of 2025. Retail sportsbooks still pay 10%.

How Louisiana legalized sports betting

Casino law before 2018

The modern gaming code began with Act 753 of 1991, the riverboat casino law (effective July 18, 1991), and Act 384 of 1992, which authorized one land-based casino in New Orleans (effective June 18, 1992). Act 7 of the 1996 First Extraordinary Session moved those laws into Title 27, the Louisiana Gaming Control Law, effective May 1, 1996. Sports betting remained a crime under R.S. 14:90 (gambling) and R.S. 14:90.3 (gambling by computer).

Under the state constitution, a law authorizing a new form of gaming can't take effect in a parish until that parish's voters approve it, so each expansion since has gone to parish ballots.

The 2018 fantasy sports vote

Rep. Kirk Talbot's HB 484 became Act 322 of 2018 on May 15, 2018, after votes of 67 to 23 in the House and 21 to 15 in the Senate. It created the Fantasy Sports Contests Act and put the question on the November 6, 2018 ballot, where 47 parishes said yes. Gov. John Bel Edwards vetoed Talbot's follow-up regulatory bill, HB 459, on June 18, 2019. Rep. Tanner Magee's HB 357 set the rules instead and was signed as Act 141 on June 9, 2020.

After Murphy: 2019 and 2020

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on state sports betting in Murphy v. NCAA on May 14, 2018. Sen. Danny Martiny's SB 153 passed the Senate 24 to 15 on April 30, 2019 and was deferred in House Appropriations on May 28, 2019.

The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe's new compact with the state took effect December 27, 2019. It authorizes sports betting, pari-mutuel wagering and fantasy sports to the extent state law permits them. In 2020, Sen. Cameron Henry's SB 130 put sports wagering on every parish ballot. It cleared the Senate 29 to 8 and the House 72 to 23 and was signed as Act 215 on June 11, 2020. On November 3, 2020, the measure passed in 55 parishes and didn't pass in the other nine.

The 2021 laws

Rep. John Stefanski's HB 697 (Act 80, signed June 4, 2021) set the 10% retail and 15% online tax rates. It also set the fees: a $250,000 application fee and a $500,000 five-year license for a sportsbook, and $100,000 plus a $250,000 permit for a platform provider. The same act authorized the Louisiana Lottery Corporation to run sports wagering. Sen. Patrick Page Cortez's SB 247 (Act 440, effective July 1, 2021) is the Sports Wagering Act, passed 31 to 6 in the Senate and 78 to 15 in the House. Sen. Rick Ward's SB 142 (Act 435, signed June 21, 2021) splits the revenue, sending 25% (up to $20 million) to the Louisiana Early Childhood Education Fund and 10% to a local allocation fund.

Launch, 2021 to 2022

Hurricane Ida slowed the commercial rollout in the fall of 2021. Paragon Casino Resort, owned by the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe, opened a Betfred sportsbook at 3 p.m. on October 6, 2021, and former Saints receiver Joe Horn placed the first legal bet. Commercial sportsbooks followed on October 31, 2021 at two Caesars properties. Mobile apps went live January 28, 2022. Legal Sports Report says the Lottery Corporation announced in May 2023 that it would likely not partner with an online sportsbook.

Changes since 2023

Gov. Jeff Landry named Christopher Hebert Board chairman in June 2024. The Board sent Bovada a cease-and-desist letter dated August 6, 2024 and said on September 20, 2024 that Bovada had added Louisiana to its restricted states. On June 17, 2025 it announced more than 40 more letters to offshore books and sweepstakes sites, and its public list of recipients includes BetUS, BookMaker and Fliff.

Rep. Neil Riser's HB 639 raised the online rate. It passed 74 to 16 in the House and 35 to 3 in the Senate and was signed as Act 298 on June 11, 2025. The act sends 25% of online tax money to a new SPORT Fund for athletic departments at the state's Division I public universities and 3% to the Louisiana Postsecondary Inclusive Education Fund.

In 2026, Sen. Mike Reese's SB 325, which bars bettors who harass athletes, passed the Senate 38 to 0 and the House 101 to 0 and became Act 491, effective August 1, 2026. Sen. Katrina Jackson-Andrews' SB 354, which would have banned prop bets and micro-bets, was heard in Senate Judiciary B on March 31, 2026 and didn't advance. Rep. C. Travis Johnson's HB 72, which would let the nine holdout parishes vote again, stayed in the House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee.

Sports betting court cases in Louisiana

We didn't find a lawsuit challenging the 2020 parish votes or the Sports Wagering Act, or a prediction market case filed in a Louisiana federal court, as of September 27, 2026.

In re MasterCard International Inc. (E.D. La. 2001; 5th Cir. No. 01-30389, 2002)

Thirty-three class actions against credit card companies over online casino debts were sent to the Eastern District of Louisiana as multidistrict litigation, and two were picked as test cases. The district court held in 2001 that the federal Wire Act covers gambling on sporting events or contests and dismissed the claims (132 F. Supp. 2d 468). On November 20, 2002, the Fifth Circuit affirmed (313 F.3d 257). That reading of the Wire Act binds federal courts in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

Clarke v. CFTC (5th Cir. No. 22-51124, 2023)

The Fifth Circuit's prediction market precedent concerns political contracts and federal agency law. PredictIt's operators and traders sued after CFTC staff withdrew the market's 2014 no-action letter in 2022. On July 21, 2023, a panel reversed the Western District of Texas and ordered a preliminary injunction while the case went forward, over a dissent by Judge James E. Graves Jr. The opinion doesn't address state gambling law.

The sports event contract appeals

Louisiana hasn't been a party to a sports event contract case. Attorney General Liz Murrill has signed two multistate amicus briefs on the states' side. The first, filed March 10, 2026 by Ohio, New Jersey, 37 other states and the District of Columbia, backed Nevada in the Ninth Circuit cases that include KalshiEX, LLC v. Assad (No. 25-7516). The second, filed April 24, 2026 by Nevada, Ohio, 35 other states and the District of Columbia, backed Massachusetts in Commonwealth v. KalshiEX LLC (Supreme Judicial Court, No. SJC-13906).

The Ninth Circuit ruled on August 28, 2026 that Kalshi's sports contracts likely aren't "swaps" under the Commodity Exchange Act, so Nevada's gaming law likely isn't preempted. The Third Circuit had gone the other way for Kalshi against New Jersey on April 6, 2026 (KalshiEX, LLC v. Flaherty, No. 25-1922). New Jersey's petition in that case was docketed September 8, 2026 as No. 26-299, and on September 22 the Clerk extended Kalshi's response deadline to November 9, 2026. On September 25, 2026 the Sixth Circuit also ruled against Kalshi, affirming the denial of an injunction against Ohio's Casino Control Commission (No. 26-3196) and vacating one against Tennessee's Sports Wagering Council (No. 26-5235) in a single opinion, KalshiEX LLC v. Schuler. None of those circuits' rulings binds courts in Louisiana, and we found no Fifth Circuit appeal on the question.

Prediction markets and daily fantasy

The Board's position is in an advisory notice dated December 5, 2025 and released December 10. Hebert addressed it to sports wagering licensees and platform permittees, and it names no company. It says sports event contracts are sports wagering under Louisiana law, that R.S. 27:602 lists "exchange wagering" as a sports wager, and that the Board sees "no defense" in a CFTC listing. Any direct or indirect involvement with such contracts "may affect" a licensee's suitability, and offering them in another state without complying with that state's licensing rules can bring administrative action in Louisiana.

No state lawsuit or cease-and-desist letter to a prediction market has followed. The legal-action tracker, updated September 25, 2026, lists only the notice for Louisiana. CBS Sports' September 24, 2026 state survey says sports prediction markets are available in Louisiana. Novig (Ludlow Exchange, LLC, designated a CFTC contract market June 16, 2026) takes Louisiana users 21 and older with ID, since its eligibility page excludes only Nevada, Arizona and Michigan, and it builds no vig into prices.

Daily fantasy is legal in the 47 parishes that approved it in 2018. The Board's licensed-platforms page lists two fantasy operators, DraftKings and FanDuel.

Help with a gambling problem

Louisiana Problem Gamblers Help Line: call 1-877-770-STOP (7867). The call is toll-free.

Sources

Common questions

How we track and verify state laws

What does Legal Sportsbooks US track?

Every state's legal status, the date betting became legal, the minimum age, the regulator and the licensed apps, plus the legal history and court cases behind them, for all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Our page on how we track and verify state laws explains the details.

What do the statuses mean?

Online and retail means licensed mobile apps and in-person sportsbooks both operate. Online only means betting happens through licensed apps, with no retail sportsbooks. Retail only means you can bet in person at licensed venues, but there's no statewide app. Not legal means no licensed sportsbooks operate. Legislation pending means a bill or ballot measure is moving, but betting hasn't launched. Not yet verified means we haven't confirmed the state's current status.

Can I bet on sports where I live?

The rules follow where you are when you place the bet. Licensed apps use geolocation to confirm you're inside a state where they can operate, and some states limit betting to certain premises. Find your state in the state index, or read our guide to location rules.

How old do you have to be to bet on sports?

It's 21 in 33 of the 40 jurisdictions with legal sports betting and 18 in five: Washington, D.C., Montana, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Wyoming. In North Dakota and Washington, the tribal casino sets the age.

How current is the tracker?

State laws and licenses change, so every state entry records the date it was last verified. If a status looks out of date, the state regulator's website has the official answer.

Is this legal advice?

No. We summarize public information about state sports betting laws. Confirm the rules with your state regulator before you bet, and don't wager more than you can afford to lose.