Louisiana Sports Betting Generates $1.8B Handle, $26.4M in Taxes in First Year

• Louisiana’s First Year with Legal Sports Betting a Financial Success

• LA Legalized Retail Sports Betting in November 2021, and Mobile in January 2022

• Both Mobile and Retail Sportsbooks Generated Most of Their Revenue from Parlay Play

Louisiana’s First Year with Legal Sports Betting a Financial Success

It has been an exciting 2022 for Louisiana sports bettors now wrapping up their first year with a legal sports betting market and according to the numbers just released, that new operation has been a success, generating billions of dollars in action and millions more in tax revenue.

The Louisiana Gaming Control Board just held its monthly meeting, and chair Ronnie Johns had some impressive news to deliver, including the state’s sports betting handle in 2022 reaching $1.8 billion, meaning resident bettors wagered that much in just one year of operation.

Prior to legalizing that activity, almost two billion dollars in action was being spent elsewhere, either with illegal local bookies or else using unregulated offshore sportsbooks which prevented that money from being tracked and the revenue it created from being taxed.

Now since Louisiana lawmakers have given legal sports betting the green light, the state has generated $26.4 million in tax revenue that goes directly towards funds that benefit residents, a new revenue stream that could increase as that market continues to grow and evolve.

And this is only year one for that market.

LA Launched Retail Sports Betting in November 2021, and Mobile in January 2022

Once the U.S. Supreme Court overturned PASPA in 2018, all states had the right to legalize, regulate, and tax their own sports betting market, but not ever area jumped at the chance since it was more complicated than expected due to pushback from native tribes and anti-gamblers.

Louisiana lawmakers took until June 2021 to join in the legal sports betting fun which is when Governor John Bel Edwards signed a bill into law to do just that, with each of the state’s 20 casinos and pari-mutuel horse racing tracks partnering up with two mobile sportsbooks each.

It took some time to set up the operation there, but by November the retail market launched and began taking legal sports bets soon after the mobile option became available in January 2022, giving Pelican State gamblers lots of new choices to place their ongoing sports action.

Turns out they love playing parlays.

Both Mobile and Retail Sportsbooks Generated Most of Their Revenue from Parlay Play

For anyone new to sports betting, a parlay bet involves making multiple wagers, with the final win depending on all the results of your group of bets going your way, a thrilling way to bet on multiple games in different ways which increases your potential payout accordingly.

In Louisiana in 2022, bettors favored parlay play, with $96 million placed using the mobile option and $22.8 million via retail action, both figures overshadowing the wagers placed from other types of bets, a sign that gamblers enjoy tying multiple games together for their wagers.

And why not in Louisiana, home to lots of fun sports teams like the NFL’s Saints and the NBA’s Pelicans plus lots of college programs featuring talented male and female athletes, all fair game for the oddsmakers and gamblers who think they know best about those matchups.

Louisiana’s sports betting market is one of over thirty that exist in states who have already launched their own versions, and according to the numbers so far, the future looks bright for America’s second-oldest pastime.