Louisiana lawmakers rejected a bill during this year’s regular session that would have allowed sports betting in the state if the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal ban. State Senator Danny Martiny sponsored SB 266, which would have allowed sports betting at the state’s 15 riverboat casinos and Harrah New Orleans. The Senate Finance Committee voted 6-3 against the bill.
Martiny said now Louisiana has dropped even farther behind Mississippi, where four casinos, including Beau Rivage and IP Casino Resort, both in Biloxi, recently began accepting sports wagers. “We’re not competing. We’re losing money to our neighbor. It’s not so much how much money the industry and state would gain through additional taxes, but how much we’re going to lose,” Martiny said.
He added he expects Arkansas to legalize sports betting for its Oaklawn Park horse racetrack in Little Rock and Southland Park dog racetrack in Memphis, and Oklahoma’s tribal casinos also soon will offer sports betting. “The New Orleans market is going to be severely impacted by Mississippi and the Shreveport market is going to be severely impacted by the Arkansas racetracks and Oklahoma Indian casinos,” Martiny said.
Martiny had hoped to introduce sports betting legislation again during the latest special session in June. However, Governor John Bel Edwards didn’t allow it because he wanted lawmakers to focus on passing a new 0.45-cent sales tax to address the state’s budget crisis. But, regarding sports betting, Edward said, “Certainly we should look at it.”
Martiny said he’ll reintroduce his legislation again next spring. “I think at the very earliest it will be two-and-a-half to three years before we could get it up and running. And even if we do it’s restricted by a limitation of space within the casinos.” Legislators did approve a bill, which Edwards signed into law, allowing the state’s riverboat casinos to move ashore and expand their gambling space. But Martiny said the increased space probably wouldn’t accommodate large, lavish sports betting areas.
Politicians in Alabama also are showing signs of frustration as Mississippi raises revenue through gambling. Voters last had the opportunity to voice their opinion on a state lottery 19 years ago and rejected it. In 2016, former Governor Robert Bentley, a Baptist deacon, supported it. The House passed a constitutional amendment that voters would have had to approve, but the Senate rejected it.
Andrew Billings, director of the Alabama Program in Sports Communication and Ronald Reagan Chair of Broadcasting at the University of Alabama, said, “I would assume lottery would be approved if it were placed on the ballot. And I would assume sports betting would be approved by a higher percentage of the population.”
Democratic Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox, running for governor, has been promoting a lottery, which would generate $300 million per year for education. Maddox spokesman Chip Hill said, “As we’ve watched Alabama citizens fund the educations of children in surrounding states by enthusiastically playing their lotteries over the years, it’s brought a hard lesson that waiting to adopt new revenue sources can lead to the loss of billions of dollars over time.”
Hill said Maddox also supports legalized sports betting. “We should immediately begin consideration of legalized sports gaming so that there’s not another moment in the future when we look back with regret over not moving quickly enough,” Hill said.
No lottery bills were proposed in 2017 or 2018, but lawmakers supported a daily fantasy sports backed by FanDuel and DraftKings. The two companies pulled out of Alabama in 2016, after then-state Attorney General Luther Strange issued cease and desist orders. DFS is allowed in
Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia.
Observers note the 2019 legislature will include new faces elected on November 6. State Senator Bobby Singleton said politically, the beginning of the 4-year terms “is a good time to look at what’s out there. This is why you would want to look at gambling legislation during the early part of the quadrennial. People will have gotten over their elections and between now and three years, you can work it out with your constituency. Now is a great time to look at aggressive new means to bring in new revenue into the state.”
Still, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, which owns and operates Alabama’s three tribal casinos, could put the brakes on gambling expansion.
