Former Louisiana Gaming Control Board Chairman dashed a lot of hopes this weekend when he stated his belief that Legal Louisiana Sports Betting won’t make it to the state til closer to College Bowl Season and the beginning of the new year.
“There are lots of moving pieces, lots of balls in the air,” Jones said when asked about the chances of legal sport betting by College kickoff. “No. Not here in Louisiana you won’t.” he told listeners on Radio Station KEEL in Shreveport.
He did go onto say that many politicians from both sides of the aisle were likely to work together to get the final rules and regulations to the governor by year’s end, but he didn’t see it happening sooner.
Jones spent almost 7 years as Gaming Control Board Chairman from 2013 til last summer, and is as is likely as anyone to understand the amount of work and rule writing still ahead.
Still on the 16th of July, the Gaming Control Board issued it’s first fantasy sports license to Draft Kings, and there is ample evidence that the Board is aware not only of the political pressure, but the pent up desire from consumers to legalize Sports Betting as soon as possible.
Louisiana law will allow betting on computers and mobile devices within the borders of the 55 parishes that voted in November to legalize Sport Betting, along with the ability to bet in Casinos and even bars and nightclubs with Class A liquor licenses. Neither neighboring states Texas or Mississippi have legalized online sports booking, despite attempts to do so. Though Mississippi has legal in-person sport betting at its casinos.
The sooner Louisiana beats these two states to the punch with legal, taxed online sports betting the more it will stand to gain. So only time will tell if the Honorable Mr. Jones is right in his end of the year time table, or if the Gaming Control Board feeling the heat, will find a way to speed up the rule writing process.