The Louisiana legislature’s push to ban online sweepstakes casinos is making swift progress in the House.
Sen. Adam Bass’ SB 181 was approved unanimously in the Senate at the end of April and last week took multiple steps forward in the House.
The bill, which would amend state gaming laws to ban online sweepstakes, unanimously passed through the lower chamber’s Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice on Wednesday and was green-lit by the Legislative Bureau without amendments on Thursday.
It will now head to the Hosue floor for third reading. If it were to pass without an amendment, it would then head straight for the governor’s desk.
Sweepstakes and associates targeted, not retailer promotions
The bill would prohibit the operation and promotion of online games, contests or promotions that utilize a dual-currency system of payment and offer players the chance to win any prize or award or cash or cash equivalents. It also more broadly targets any digital product that simulates any form of casino-style gaming, lottery gaming or sports betting.
It would punish not only operators but also suppliers and vendors, affiliates and other parties such as platform providers, geolocation partners and advertisers. Violations would be punished through fines of up to $100,000 along with potential prison time of up to five years.
Speaking to the Senate chamber before it passed last month, Bass called his bill, “legislation to combat the proliferation of illegal online casinos, which are ripping off Louisiana citizens.”
In apparent response to the argument from Social and Promotional Games Association (SPGA) and VGW that banning sweepstakes would unfairly target free-to-play promotions such as rewards programs, Bass stressed at a Senate hearing that the gaming control board and attorney general “have no interest in going after Starbucks or Marriott or McDonald’s and are solely focused on putting an end to sweepstakes casinos in this state.”
“So-called sweepstakes casinos claim to simply be a sweepstakes contest but are in fact unregulated and untaxed gambling,” he added at the time.
Louisiana could be second state to ban sweeps
If the bill were to go the distance and be signed into law, Louisiana would be the second U.S. state to follow through on a proposal to ban online sweepstakes casinos.
Just this week, Montana became the first by passing a bill that notes that “online casinos, by whatever name known” are prohibited. Montana’s updated definition of online casinos “includes but is not limited to any platform, website, or application that knowingly transmits or receives gambling information, allows consumers to place a bet or wager using any form of currency, and makes payouts of any form of currency.”
Meanwhile, this anti-sweeps bill is the second major change to Louisiana’s gaming landscape to be approved by the House this week. The chamber sent a bill to raise the state’s sports betting tax rate from its current 15% to the Senate, although not before it scaled back the proposed new rate from a lofty 32% to 21.5%.
