Louisiana Governor Re-Election Reignites Hope For Legal Sports Betting

• Governor John Bel Edwards was re-elected as the governor of Louisiana.
• Gov. Edwards is in favor of sports betting for Louisiana.
• State lawmakers will begin meeting again in 2020.

BATON ROUGE, La. – Governor John Bel Edwards was re-elected as governor of Louisiana on Saturday.

Gov. Edwards, a Democrat, defeated Republican challenger Eddie Rispone. Louisiana had a “jungle primary” which had all candidates in a single ballot. From there, two candidates were selected and had only a few weeks to campaign. It was one of the most contested governor races in the country. Gov. Edwards won by less than a two percent margin.

Both candidates have very different views on gambling expansion, which would have affected legal sports betting efforts.

The re-election of Gov. Edwards is good news for Louisiana sports betting. The fact of the matter is Gov. Edwards is in favor of gambling expansion in Louisiana. The governor has supported efforts to keep gambling operators in Louisiana. He has also supported efforts to allow casinos in the state to open their own sportsbooks.

Rispone has completely opposite views about sports betting and gambling in general. In the Christian questionnaire IVoterGuide, Rispone told voters what he thinks about gambling. He said that he strongly agreed that gambling should be limited and not expanded.

This means that he would have likely vetoed any efforts to create new sports betting laws. This is despite the fact that the state legislature is currently controlled by Republicans. Rispone campaigned on Republicans having full control of Louisiana’s government and conservative values. He also had the backing of President Trump who visited Louisiana twice to campaign for Rispone.

Despite that, Gov. Edwards won his re-election bid. The governor is known to be bipartisan. He is closer to the political center than most Democrats. Gov. Edwards had nearly the full support of Democratic voters in the state as well.

Even though Gov. Edwards is a Democrat, the chance of legal Louisiana sports betting is better than ever. He has supported the state’s legislature to expand sports betting.

Now it is up to the state legislature to deliver a bill to Gov. Edwards in 2020. There were numerous efforts in 2019 to create sports betting legislation. But the legislation failed to pass before the end of Louisiana’s legislative session. Lawmakers will need to start over to make sports betting legal in Louisiana. If lawmakers in the state do manage to pass a bill, the re-elected governor will likely sign it into law.

News tags: Baton Rouge | Eddie Rispone | John Bel Edwards | Louisiana