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MARKSVILLE — Louisiana’s first legal sports betting parlor opened here Wednesday afternoon at the Paragon Casino Resort, ushering in the state’s largest gambling expansion in three decades.
Paragon partnered with Betfred Sports to open The Draft Room, a Las Vegas-style sports book featuring theater seating, a custom video wall, betting counters and kiosks.
“Our sports bar that connects with The Draft Room has been open since April, and our guests have been calling every day to ask when the sports book is opening,” Paragon Casino General Manager Marshall Sampson Sr. said in an interview with USA Today Network.
“There’s been a high level of excitement and anticipation associated with this milestone,” said Sampson, who noted Louisiana had been leaking some gambling customers to Mississippi, where sports betting was already available.
Retired New Orleans Saints fan favorite Joe Horn made the first official bet — a long-odds seven-team parlay in which he has to pick all seven winners to cash in. “I bet a little money to win a lot,” Horn said.
Louisiana’s Legislature and Gov. John Bel Edwards legalized sports betting in 2020 in parishes where voters approved it, but lawmakers had to come back in 2021 to finalize regulations and taxing.
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It’s the largest gambling expansion since the Legislature established the lottery, casinos and video poker in the early 1990s.
Gambling generated about $600 million in state taxes in 2020.
Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser said adding sports wagering at Paragon and other casinos “will be a great tourism draw for Louisiana and put us on equal footing with Mississippi.”
Paragon is a tribal casino operated by the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, so it isn’t regulated by the Louisiana Gaming Commission and won’t pay state taxes, but Paragon needed final legalization to open.
Gamblers will be able to place sports wagers in-person only for now, but Paragon officials said mobile applications will follow, though no timetable has been set.
State-licensed casino betting parlors are expected to follow Paragon’s lead soon, Louisiana Gaming Commission Chair Ronnie Johns told USA Today Network.
“They’re getting close, but I think it’s going to be another couple of weeks,” Johns said. “I’ve never seen such interest in something than I’ve seen in sports betting.”
Like Paragon, all of the first sports betting options at Louisiana-licensed riverboat and land-based casinos and racetracks will be at on-site sports books for in-person wagering.
Johns said it will be months before mobile sports gaming applications come online.
“Mobile takes longer because the casinos use outside vendors to do that work, and those vendors haven’t been licensed yet, so they have to go through the suitability process and background checks with the State Police,” Johns said. “We’re hoping to have some of those approved in a 60-day window.”
And it could be January before bars and restaurants can secure sports betting kiosks for their customers. That segment of sports betting is under the control of the Louisiana Lottery rather than the Gaming Control Board.
Louisiana Lottery President Rose Hudson said her agency is working on a two-track timeline to expedite the retail segment — seeking vendors and promulgating rules.
“We should be complete in November,” Hudson said with a targeted rollout in early 2022.
“We believe this segment of the industry will be well received by our state’s (bars and restaurants),” said Hudson, who is also the lottery’s chief executive. “It offers the businesses another way to attract customers.”
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Voters in 55 of Louisiana’s 64 parishes approved legalizing sports betting in their communities last fall, but lawmakers had to set up the framework to regulate and tax sports wagers during the 2021 spring Legislative Session.
Sports betting will still be prohibited in Caldwell, Catahoula, Franklin, Jackson, LaSalle, Sabine, Union, West Carroll and Winn, the parishes where voters rejected the gaming expansion.
Geofencing technology will prevent residents in those parishes from accessing mobile sports betting applications.
The Gaming Control Board passed emergency rules to expedite the process last month.
Those emergency rules are in place for 180 days, but representatives from the Louisiana attorney general’s office said they planned to promulgate permanent rules before the 180 days expire.
Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.
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