| Sports (online) | Live | Jan 28, 2022 | Competitive | Mobile/online wagering is available statewide only within the 55 parishes that approved the 2020 referendum (geofenced); the nine rejecting parishes are excluded. Launch was delayed from an original 2021 target, partly because Louisiana's constitution bars enacting a new tax outside an odd-numbered year and partly due to Hurricane Ida disrupting licensing staff; mobile betting went live January 28, 2022. La. R.S. 27:601 et seq.; La. R.S. 27:625 [1],[2] |
| Sports (retail) | Live | Oct 25, 2021 | Competitive | Authorized by a November 3, 2020 statewide ballot measure requiring parish-by-parish approval; voters approved sports wagering in 55 of the state's 64 parishes. The Legislature then enacted the regulatory framework (SB 247) and revenue-distribution bill (SB 142), both signed by Gov. John Bel Edwards and effective July 1, 2021; retail wagering is available at the state's 15+ licensed casinos/racetrack-affiliated venues in approving parishes. The nine parishes that rejected the 2020 measure remain barred from hosting any sports wagering; a bill to let them revote (H.B. 72) was introduced but its passage was not confirmed in this research. La. R.S. 27:601 et seq. (SB 247, 2021); La. R.S. 27:625 (SB 142, 2021) [3],[4] |
| Online casino | Not authorized | | | No Louisiana statute authorizes online casino games (slots/table/live dealer); casino-style gaming is confined to licensed riverboat/land-based premises and tribal facilities. |
| Online poker | Not authorized | | | No statute authorizes online peer-to-peer poker; poker is offered only live at licensed casino poker rooms. |
| Commercial casinos | Live | 1993 | Competitive | The 1991 Legislature authorized up to 15 riverboat casinos statewide (including several in the New Orleans area); a single land-based casino monopoly for downtown New Orleans was separately authorized around 1992, with the permanent Harrah's New Orleans casino (now operated by Caesars) opening to the public October 28, 1999 after an earlier 1995 temporary casino failed in bankruptcy. A 2025-26 legislative proposal (H.B. 553) would extend the state's operating contract with Caesars for Harrah's New Orleans by 30 years; this research did not confirm final enactment. Louisiana Riverboat Economic Development and Gaming Control Act; Louisiana Economic Development and Gaming Corporation Act (land-based casino) [5],[6] |
| Tribal casinos | Live | | Monopoly Tribal | Tribal-state Class III compacts cover the Chitimacha Tribe, Coushatta Tribe, Tunica-Biloxi Tribe, and (per a 2002 compact) the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians; each operates land-based casino facilities under IGRA. 25 U.S.C. § 2701 et seq. (IGRA) [6] |
| Lottery | Live | 1991 | Monopoly State | Louisiana voters approved a constitutional amendment creating a lottery, and sales resumed in September/October 1991 (secondary sources give both 1990 and 1991 for the authorizing vote; the Lottery itself dates its relaunch to 1991). This ended the state's prior reliance on neighboring states' lotteries (notably Florida's) for cross-border player spending. La. Const. art. XII, § 6.1; La. R.S. 47:9000 et seq. [6] |
| iLottery | Not authorized | | | Louisiana Lottery tickets are sold only in person at licensed retailers through WinStation vending machines per secondary-source description; no statute or program authorizes online ticket sales. The Lottery has explored the idea (secondary reporting describes it "exploring online ticket sales") but no enabling legislation has passed as of this research.[7] |
| Daily fantasy | Live | Legalized Aug 1, 2018 | Competitive | Act 322 (H.B. 484, 2018) created the Fantasy Sports Contests Act effective August 1, 2018, but made Gaming Control Board regulatory implementation contingent on a November 6, 2018 parish referendum; voters approved DFS in 47 of 64 parishes, representing about 92% of the state's population (operators must geofence out the 17 rejecting parishes). Implementing/tax legislation stalled in 2019 after being combined with a failed sports-betting bill, and Gov. Edwards later signed a bill setting the DFS tax rate in a subsequent special session. Louisiana Fantasy Sports Contests Act (Act 322 of 2018, codified in La. R.S. Title 27) [8],[9],[10] |
| VGTs / VLTs | Live | 1992 | Competitive | Video poker machines were legalized alongside riverboat casinos in the 1991 legislative session (allowed to become law without the governor's signature); the deal to include truck stops (in addition to bars, restaurants, and racetrack/OTB facilities) secured the votes needed to pass the bill, and statewide rollout followed in 1992. Truck-stop device counts are tied to monthly fuel sales under La. R.S. 27:402(17), 27:405, and 27:416 (e.g., 100,000+ gallons of monthly fuel sales, including 40,000 diesel, supports up to 50 devices). The franchise-payment (tax) structure was confirmed directly against current statutory text in this pass: R.S. 27:435(D) sets a flat 26% of net device revenue for bars/restaurants/taverns/lounges/clubs/motels/hotels and 32.5% for qualified truck stops; for racetrack/off-track-wagering facility devices, R.S. 27:438(A)(1) first requires the establishment owner to pay 20% of net device revenue to the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association as a purse supplement (split among quarter-horse and thoroughbred purses per R.S. 27:438(B)), after which R.S. 27:435(D) reduces the franchise-payment rate on the remaining net device revenue to 22.5%. See tax_rates below for all three resolved figures, superseding this research's earlier unable-to-confirm note. Video Draw Poker Devices Control Law, La. R.S. 27:401 et seq. [11],[12],[13],[14] |
| Historical horse racing | Prohibited | | | Act 437 had permitted HHR machines at licensed off-track betting facilities statewide without a parish vote. In March 2025 the Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed a lower-court ruling that Act 437 was unconstitutional because HHR is a "new form of gaming" not authorized before October 15, 1996, and the 1996 constitutional amendment requires parish-level voter approval before any new gaming form can take effect in that parish. The ruling eliminated roughly $6 million/year in purse subsidies at Fair Grounds (about 19% of total purses); Churchill Downs announced plans to surrender its HHR-related racing and off-track betting licenses, and operators would need to win parish referenda to reinstate HHR machines. Act 437 (since invalidated); La. Const. art. XII, § 6(C) (parish-referendum requirement for new gaming, adopted 1996) [15],[16],[17] |
| Sweepstakes casinos | Prohibited | | | Gov. Jeff Landry vetoed SB 181 (a dedicated sweepstakes-casino ban) in 2025, saying the conduct was already illegal under existing law. Attorney General Liz Murrill issued a formal opinion on July 2, 2025 concluding that online "sweepstakes" or "social" casino-style platforms violate Louisiana's gambling and gambling-by-computer statutes; the Gaming Control Board, working with the AG's office, sent cease-and-desist letters to roughly 40 offshore wagering and sweepstakes operators (including platforms behind Chumba Casino, Fliff, Funzpoints, and WOW Vegas brands). Most major sweepstakes brands (Chumba, Stake, LuckyLand, Modo, Global Poker) exited the Louisiana market by mid-2025 rather than contest the letters. In 2026 Landry signed two bills codifying the ban directly into statute, both effective August 1, 2026: HB 883 amends the computer-wagering statute to explicitly cover online/mobile dual-currency games, and HB 53 expands Louisiana's organized-crime/racketeering statute to reach gambling violations, exposing sweepstakes-casino operation to racketeering charges carrying up to 50 years at hard labor and fines up to $1 million. Separately, the Louisiana Department of Revenue sued VGW (Virtual Gaming Worlds) and MW Services Ltd. (WOW Vegas) in the 19th Judicial District Court for roughly $44 million combined in unpaid sales taxes, interest, and penalties on their prior Louisiana sweepstakes-coin sales; VGW began collecting sales tax on Gold Coin purchases in Louisiana starting around July 2026. La. R.S. 14:90 (gambling); La. R.S. 14:90.3 (gambling by computer); 2026 La. Acts (HB 883, amending the computer-wagering statute); 2026 La. Acts (HB 53, amending the organized-crime/racketeering statute) [18],[19],[20],[21],[22] |
| Prediction markets | Not authorized | | | Changed from "contested" to "not_authorized" on audit (2026-10-10): Louisiana officials were reported (December 2025) to have taken the position that sports-focused prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket constitute illegal betting under state law, amid escalating pressure on such platforms, but this research could not access or verify the underlying Gaming Control Board or Attorney General document, so no confirmed cease-and-desist, lawsuit, injunction, or ruling against a named platform exists. A follow-up search for this audit found no Louisiana Gaming Control Board or AG press release, docket, or cease-and-desist naming Kalshi/Polymarket, so the national prediction-markets rule's bar for "contested" (a concrete state action) is not met; the contracts remain available to Louisiana residents statewide under claimed CFTC/federal preemption as of this file's as_of date. Louisiana sits in the Fifth Circuit, which has not ruled on Kalshi's CFTC-preemption theory as of Oct. 2026 (the ruling circuits so far are the 3rd, for Kalshi in NJ, and the 6th/9th, against Kalshi).[23] |
| Skill games | Not authorized | | | Only "approved video draw poker devices" licensed under the Video Draw Poker Devices Control Law (La. R.S. 27:401 et seq.) are statutorily exempted from being "gambling devices" (see vgt); that exemption applies to Gaming Control Board-licensed machines, not unlicensed third-party "skill game"/grey machines. No LGCB approval, AG opinion, or litigation specifically addressing unlicensed skill-game terminals (the subject of active disputes in KY, PA, VA, MO) was found; such devices would fall under the general gambling prohibition (La. R.S. 14:90) absent LGCB approval.[24],[25] |
| Card rooms | Not authorized | | | No standalone cardroom licensing framework outside poker rooms at licensed riverboat/land-based casinos; the Gaming Control Law does not authorize cardrooms at non-casino venues. |
| Lottery couriers | Not authorized | | | No statute authorizes third-party online lottery courier services; secondary sources describe Louisiana as having no legal courier option, consistent with its in-person-only WinStation retail model. A 2026 bill, HB 1074 (Rep. Adams), would create a licensing framework letting the Louisiana Lottery Corporation authorize couriers to place internet orders through contracted retailers; this research could not confirm whether it passed.[7],[26] |
| Pick'em fantasy | Not authorized | | | The Louisiana Fantasy Sports Contests Act (Act 322/HB 484 of 2018) requires that prizes be "established and made known in advance" with values not determined by entry-fee volume, and that outcomes reflect participants' relative knowledge and skill; it does not separately define or address pick'em/player-vs-house formats. Confirmed directly against the Louisiana Gaming Control Board's own current licensed-operators page (lgcb.dps.louisiana.gov/ licensed-platforms/): as of this research the only two licensees listed under "Fantasy Sports" are "DK Crown Holdings, Inc. d/b/a DraftKings (F011703418)" and "FanDuel, Inc. d/b/a FanDuel (F011703419)" -- neither PrizePicks, Underdog, nor Betr appears, and DraftKings' and FanDuel's licensed products are ordinary peer-to-peer DFS contests (see the `dfs` vertical), not an against-the-house pick'em format. Consistent with that official list, independent operator-availability trackers and the operators' own state pages show the against-the-house pick'em apps are absent from Louisiana: Underdog's own legal-states information lists Louisiana among states where it "does not operate at all," and PrizePicks' Louisiana state page lists the state inconsistently across its Player/Team/ Culture Picks availability tables, with no distinct pick'em product confirmed live there. No LGCB rule, Attorney General opinion, or enforcement action specifically addressing the pick'em/player-vs-house fantasy format was found -- the gap appears to be driven by operator non-entry/non-licensure (and Louisiana's added complexity of parish-by-parish DFS approval) rather than a specific regulatory ban -- so this is marked not_authorized rather than prohibited.[10],[27],[28],[29] |
| Pari-mutuel | Live | | Competitive | Live thoroughbred and quarter-horse racing continues at several tracks, including the Fair Grounds Race Course (New Orleans), with off-track betting parlors operated by Churchill Downs Inc. and others. Four Louisiana racetracks/OTB operators were also eligible to hold sports-wagering licenses under the 2021 sports-betting framework. The Fair Grounds' future has been in dispute following the March 2025 state Supreme Court ruling against historical horse racing machines, which removed a major revenue source subsidizing live-racing purses. La. R.S. 4:141 et seq. (racing) [3],[30] |
| Advance deposit wagering | Contested | | | La. R.S. 4:149(A) confines legal pari-mutuel wagering on horse races to licensed on-site wagering and states "all other forms of wagering on the result of horse races are illegal," with only two statutory exceptions (the section itself, and a sports-book-lounge wagering provision at R.S. 27:612, which falls within Louisiana's sports-wagering chapter rather than a dedicated ADW authorization). This research found no distinct statute authorizing account/advance-deposit wagering for Louisiana residents wagering on races run in-state or out-of-state; secondary industry marketing pages describe ADW as available to Louisiana bettors 18+, but that description was not corroborated against the statute text reviewed, so the vertical is marked contested rather than confirmed operational or prohibited. La. R.S. 4:149 [31] |
| Charitable gaming | Live | | Monopoly State | R.S. 4:707(A) lets the state's Office of Charitable Gaming license "charitable organizations" (as defined in R.S. 4:703(1)) to hold bingo, keno, and raffles; the parish or municipal governing authority must separately permit such gaming locally. A 2018 amendment (SB 559) exempted raffles benefiting schools/community purposes from licensing/reporting requirements where local authorities permit raffles. Special one-session bingo licenses cap total prizes at $25,000, with no more than two special licenses per organization per year. La. R.S. 4:701 et seq. (Charitable Raffles, Bingo and Keno Licensing Law) [32] |
| Esports betting | Not authorized | | | Louisiana's Sports Wagering Control Act excludes esports from authorized wagering: its "sports event"/"sporting event" definition expressly carves out a "prohibited event," defined to include "all high school sports or youth athletic events, electronic sports, and competitive video games." Bill-text sources describing this exclusion were reviewed, but the current codified R.S. 27:602 text could not be fetched directly in this session (PDF not machine-readable), so this is confirmed via search-result summary rather than a verbatim page excerpt. La. R.S. 27:602 (Sports Wagering Control Act, definitions) [33] |
| Social casino | Contested | | | Pure free-to-play social casino apps with no cash-out mechanism were not directly addressed in the statutes reviewed. Dual-currency sweepstakes-model social casinos are now directly prohibited by statute (see sweepstakes_casino); whether single-currency, no-cash-prize social casino apps remain permitted was not separately addressed by the AG opinion, the 2025 cease-and-desist letters, or the 2026 HB 883/HB 53 statutory amendments reviewed.[18] |