Louisiana Approves Emergency Temporary Sports Betting Rules

• The Louisiana Gaming Commission has unanimously approved emergency sports betting rules that would allow the market to launch in 2021.
• The rules will be active for 180 days, allowing the permanent rules to be ironed out as the market runs.
• The rules will go into effect on Monday.

BATON ROUGE, La. – Louisiana betting fans will likely see the market launch in time for the 2021 NFL season after the Louisiana Gaming Control Board (LGCB) unanimously approves emergency rules.

These rules will go into effect starting Monday and will be available for a maximum of 180 days. During this time, Louisiana sports betting will be able to launch under the temporary rules as the permanent rules continue to be worked on.

Sports Betting In Louisiana Incoming

Louisiana residents will see sports betting options in 55 of 64 parishes that voted in favor of legal sports betting including both retail and mobile.

There is no official launch date, however as lawmakers still need to create guidelines for how sportsbooks can apply for betting licenses; but now it appears that this can occur in 2021 while before the earliest the market could launch looked like 2022.

Louisiana is attempting to launch in time for NFL betting which was further expedited with the appointment of Sen. Ronnie Johns as the Chairmen of the LGCB.

“Sports betting was just approved by the state legislature in the session that ended in June. One of my first responsibilities as Chairman will be to promulgate all the regulations for this new gaming program in the state,” said Johns.

Timeline For The Launch

Unlike with the permanent rules, these temporary rules will not be subject to public comment or stakeholder input. Because of this, there should be no hurdles standing in the way of the official launch.

Riverboat casinos and Harrah’s land-based operations already have the infrastructure in place to launch sports betting, only needing to curate deals with sportsbooks.

Since the issuing of betting licenses will not take too long, sports betting operations could see an official launch during the first few weeks of the NFL season.

During the period in which sports betting will be active under the emergency rules, the LGCB will be working on the permanent rules. This will be open to public comment and stakeholder input.

Johns expects the permanent rules to be completed before the 180-day deadline with no need to renew the temporary rules.

News tags: Baton Rouge | Caldwell | Catahoula | Franklin | LaSalle | LGCB | Louisiana | Louisiana Gaming Commission | New Orleans | Ronnie Johns