Facing a looming legislative deadline, Louisiana lawmakers are continuing their push to ban online sweepstakes casinos in the Pelican State.
The House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice heard Senate Bill 181 from Sen. Adam Bass, a proposal that cruised through the Senate last month by a 39-0 vote. The bill followed a similar path in the House committee, which voted 8-0 on Wednesday to advance SB 181.
Certainly, it’s a favorable step for Bass’ legislation, but time is running out for it to cross the finish line.
Bass: Louisianans ‘conned’ into betting over $4.5 billion
Emphasizing similar points he made throughout the bill’s run through the Senate, Bass noted to the House committee that the “proliferation” of unlicensed and unregulated online sweepstakes casinos are “ripping off Louisiana citizens.”
Bass told the committee that Louisianans “are conned into wagering” just over $4.5 billion on the black market every year. “Most disturbingly,” he added, “there are no age verifications on these games.”
As the senator put it, SB 181 clarifies that online, real-money sweepstakes casinos constitute illegal gambling while also establishing penalties for those who operate or facilitate unregulated online gambling.
“Several of you may have seen [other committees] have gone through this and had joint hearings on how to address this,” Bass said. “There have been articles written, to which, when I pulled them up, three different times I have been advertised to go and join an online sweepstakes game.
“So what I’m trying to do here is clarify this and give both the Attorney General’s Office and gaming control board of Louisiana state police what they need in order to enforce it.”
Louisiana casinos show strong support for SB 181
Rep. Debbie Villio, chair of the Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice, listed several individuals who support the bill, including representatives from legal gambling companies such as Golden Nugget, Boyd Gaming and Cordish Companies—all of which run land-based casinos in Louisiana.
This proved what Howard Glaser, the global head of government affairs and legislative counsel at Light & Wonder, told a Senate committee in April: All licensed and regulated operators in the state are on board with banning sweeps casinos.
“It’s very unusual to get that uniform support across the board,” Glaser testified last month, “as well as the responsible gaming advocates that are concerned about consumer play and having them protected as well.”
Bill will not affect charitable gaming efforts
An individual representing the charitable gaming sector expressed some concern regarding the effect SB 181 would have beyond its intended target of online sweepstakes casinos, including the potential that the bill would make several charitable gaming products to become illegal if the legislation passes. Specific examples included the likes of bingo or even raffles held by the New Orleans Saints.
In response, Bass assured that his bill “just deals with online gaming” and will not take away from charitable gaming.
“My fear is, if we were to exclude the games that he mentioned, if you have ever gone online and you can simply Google ‘online gaming,’ you’re going to have all these different casinos that come up,” Bass said. “They call them sweepstakes games. Once you get into the sweepstakes games, oftentimes you’re dealing with tokens. But at some point, they transition from the tokens to asking for real money and then they can take you to real online gambling. There’s not any age verification in doing that.
Added the senator:
“Again, the charitable gaming is located somewhere else, but since we’re dealing with an illegal activity, which is iGaming, then I think that point is irrelevant. We’re not going to be outlawing what they do, because what they do is not online and it helps quite a few people.”
Lawmakers face June 12 deadline to pass bill
While plenty of cards came in to support the bill, Villio mentioned that none were in opposition. As such, SB 181 advanced out of the committee with hopes still alive for passage.
That said, lawmakers are on the clock.
If Louisiana wants to join Montana as the only states to send bills banning online sweepstakes casinos to their governors, it needs to do so before June 12, which is when Louisiana’s legislative session ends.
For perspective, SB 181 received a sweeping 39-0 vote in the Senate six days after Bass first introduced it to the Senate Judiciary B Committee. It took another five days for the Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice to first read the bill before Wednesday’s ultimate passage.
Of course, legislators could lay on the accelerator to help sweep up the bill’s timeline. Still, that June 12 deadline looms if Louisiana does not want its efforts to fall short like in neighboring Mississippi and Arkansas.
