Robert Linnehan | 3 hours ago

It’s a perfect way to celebrate the Halloween season, as in-person Louisiana sports betting will be legal in retail casinos this Sunday in time for the Saints game.

Louisiana Gaming Control Board Chairman Ronnie Johns told Saturday Down South he issued sports betting licenses to four casinos today and all four can begin offering sports betting at their facilities this Sunday.

In-person sports betting this Sunday

The four casinos that received licenses are as follows:

• Harrah’s New Orleans (Caesars Entertainment)
• Horseshoe Casino Bossier City (Caesars Entertainment)
• L’Auberge Casino Baton Rouge (Penn National Gaming)
• Boomtown Casino Hotel (Penn National Gaming)

Each facility can technically begin offering in-person sports betting at 12:01 a.m. this Sunday.

The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe-owned Paragon Casino Resort actually was the first casino in the state to offer sports betting, launching its own program earlier this month. However, these will be the first four non-tribal owned casinos to launch sports betting.

Johns previously had hoped for in-person sports betting to begin in September, but Hurricane Ida made the target and impossibility.

Johns said the gaming control board will continue to work towards licensing the remaining nine casinos that applied for a Louisiana sports betting license. The licenses are being awarded in the order the applications came into the gaming control board, Johns previously said.

“We’re getting closer to being able to issue a few more licenses hopefully in the next week,” he told Saturday Down South.

When will online sports betting launch?

In addition to the start of in-person sports betting, Johns said his goal is to have online sports betting live in the state by Jan. 1, 2022.

“We need to do this the right way. Louisiana State Police is on it, they’re working on a daily basis to have it up and running. We’re trying to have it as fast as we can, and I’m going to predict the first of the year for when we have mobile,” Johns said.

Nine out of 64 parishes in the state did not approve sports betting, so the gaming control board is currently working with geofencing technology to keep online sports betting available in the 55 parishes that approved the sports betting bill several years ago.

These are the parishes where sports betting is illegal:

• Caldwell
• Catahoula
• Franklin
• Jackson
• LaSalle
• Sabine
• Union
• West Carroll
• Winn

More to come for Louisiana sports betting soon

Louisiana will allow 20 sports betting licenses, one each for the the state’s 15 riverboat casinos, four racinos (horse tracks) and one land-based casino. Each license will also include two mobile licenses, which could mean a potential of 41 “skins” for Louisiana online sports betting. The one additional skin would be allotted to the Louisiana Lottery Corporation.

Each facility applying for a sports betting license will be required to construct a retail sportsbook to be eligible.

Facilities with Class-A onsite consumption liquor licenses can receive a mobile wagering device, called a kiosk, to allow patrons to participate in online sports betting while in their facility. This would be run under the purveyance of the Louisiana Lottery Corporation and revenue would be taxed at 10%.

A sports betting ban on in-state collegiate programs was not included in the bill.