| 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. La. R.S. 27:601 et seq. (SB 247, 2021); La. R.S. 27:625 (SB 142, 2021) [3],[4] |
| Online casino | Prohibited | | | R.S. 14:90.3 prohibits unlicensed gambling by computer. Its casino exceptions apply only on licensed riverboat and land-based premises, and its fantasy-sports and sports-wagering exceptions do not cover online casino games. La. R.S. 14:90.3(B), (D)–(E), (K), (O)–(P) [5] |
| Online poker | Prohibited | | | R.S. 14:90.3 prohibits unlicensed gambling by computer, and none of its exceptions covers online peer-to-peer poker; poker is offered only live at licensed casino poker rooms. La. R.S. 14:90.3(B), (D)–(E), (K), (O)–(P) [5] |
| 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. Louisiana Riverboat Economic Development and Gaming Control Act; Louisiana Economic Development and Gaming Corporation Act (land-based casino) [6],[7] |
| 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) [7] |
| Lottery | Live | Sep 6, 1991 | Monopoly State | Louisiana voters approved a constitutional amendment creating a lottery in 1990; the Louisiana Lottery Corporation Law (R.S. 47:9000) was enacted as Acts 1990, No. 1045, effective Nov. 7, 1990. The Corporation began operating Jan. 15, 1991 after Senate confirmation of its board, and released its first scratch-off game, Louisiana Treasures, on Sept. 6, 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. (Louisiana Lottery Corporation Law) [7],[8],[9] |
| iLottery | Not authorized | | | Louisiana Lottery tickets are sold only in person at licensed retailers through WinStation vending machines; no statute or program authorizes online ticket sales. The Lottery has discussed exploring online sales, but no enabling legislation has passed.[10]?Based on industry reporting; a Lottery Corporation statute or program document was not located. |
| 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) [11],[12],[13] |
| VGTs / VLTs | Live | 1992 | Competitive | Video poker machines were legalized alongside riverboat casinos in the 1991 legislative session; 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 (for example, 100,000+ gallons of monthly sales, including 40,000 diesel, supports up to 50 devices). Device revenue is split between a state franchise payment and, at racetrack/OTB facilities, a mandatory purse supplement to horse-racing purses; see the tax rates below for the exact percentages. Video Draw Poker Devices Control Law, La. R.S. 27:401 et seq. [14],[15],[16],[17] |
| 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) [18],[19],[20] |
| 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) [21],[22],[23],[24],[25] |
| Prediction markets | Not authorized | | | Prediction-market platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket are available to Louisiana residents statewide under the operators' claimed federal (CFTC) preemption from state gambling law; the state has taken no confirmed enforcement action, lawsuit, or ruling against them. Louisiana is in the Fifth Circuit, which has not ruled on the CFTC-preemption question as of October 2026 (the Third Circuit has let Kalshi continue operating in New Jersey; the Sixth and Ninth Circuits have ruled against Kalshi).[26]?Louisiana officials were reported in December 2025 to view these contracts as illegal betting, but no Gaming Control Board or Attorney General document naming a specific platform action was found. |
| Skill games | Not authorized | | | Only video draw poker devices licensed under the Video Draw Poker Devices Control Law are exempt from Louisiana's general ban on gambling devices; that exemption covers Gaming Control Board-licensed machines, not unlicensed third-party "skill game" terminals. Unlicensed skill-game machines, the subject of active legal disputes in several other states, have no specific approval or ruling addressing them in Louisiana and would fall under the general gambling prohibition absent Board licensing.[27],[28] |
| Card rooms | Not authorized | | | No standalone cardroom licensing exists outside poker rooms at licensed riverboat and land-based casinos. R.S. 14:90(A) prohibits conducting gambling as a business, and 14:90(C) exempts only enumerated licensed gaming on licensed premises. La. R.S. 14:90(A), (C) [29] |
| Lottery couriers | Not authorized | | | No statute authorizes third-party online lottery courier services, consistent with Louisiana's in-person-only retail model. A 2026 bill (HB 1074) would create a licensing framework letting the Louisiana Lottery Corporation authorize couriers to place orders online through contracted retailers.[10],[30] |
| Pick'em fantasy | Not authorized | | | Louisiana's fantasy-sports law requires contest prizes to be fixed and announced in advance, with outcomes reflecting participants' relative skill; it does not separately address pick'em (player-vs-house) formats. The state's two licensed fantasy-sports operators, DraftKings and FanDuel, offer only ordinary peer-to-peer contests; pick'em-style apps such as Underdog and PrizePicks are not licensed or confirmed available in Louisiana. No regulator rule, Attorney General opinion, or enforcement action addresses the pick'em format directly, so the gap reflects those operators staying out of the market (and Louisiana's added complexity of parish-by-parish DFS approval) rather than a specific ban.[13],[31],[32],[33]?PrizePicks' own availability pages are inconsistent about whether Louisiana is covered; this entry follows the state's official licensee list, which does not include it. |
| 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],[34] |
| Advance deposit wagering | Contested | | | State law confines legal pari-mutuel wagering on horse races to licensed on-site wagering and declares other forms of wagering on race results illegal, with only narrow statutory exceptions; it does not clearly authorize account or advance-deposit wagering for Louisiana residents betting on races run in- or out-of-state. Industry marketing pages describe ADW as available to Louisiana bettors 18 and up, which conflicts with the statute's plain text. La. R.S. 4:149 [35]?The statute's text and industry marketing claims about ADW availability conflict, so this entry is marked contested rather than confirmed operational or prohibited. |
| 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) [36] |
| 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." La. R.S. 27:602 (Sports Wagering Control Act, definitions) [37]?Confirmed from bill-text search results; the current codified statute page could not be opened directly to verify against a live page. |
| Social casino | Contested | | | Free-to-play social casino apps with no cash-out mechanism are not directly addressed by Louisiana's gambling statutes. Dual-currency sweepstakes-style casinos, which let players redeem a second currency for cash or prizes, are now directly prohibited by statute; whether single-currency apps with no path to a cash prize remain permitted has not been separately addressed by the Attorney General's opinion, the 2025 cease-and-desist letters, or the 2026 statutory amendments.[21] |