Louisiana Lawmakers Approve Online Sports Betting Tax Hike to Support Student-Athletes
Posted on: June 9, 2025, 09:09h.
Last updated on: June 9, 2025, 09:09h.
- Louisiana’s online sportsbooks could see their tax rates increase
- Louisiana lawmakers have passed legislation increasing the online sportsbook tax rate to 21.5%
- The legislation awaits Gov. Landry’s signature
Lawmakers in Louisiana want to jack up the tax rate that online sportsbooks pay the state for the privilege of facilitating sports wagers via the internet.
Should Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) sign House Bill 639, the Bayou State’s online sportsbook operators would see their effective tax jump from 15% to 21.5%.
Filed by Rep. Neil Riser (R-Columbia), HB639 cleared the House in May with a 73-15 vote. The House passed the online sports betting tax increase after lowering Riser’s initially sought tax jump to 32.5%. The legislation passed the Senate on Sunday with a 35-3 vote.
Despite opposition from the sportsbooks claiming a higher tax will further put their legal, regulated operations at a competitive disadvantage with illegal, unregulated offshore online sportsbooks, state lawmakers got behind Riser’s proposal to help fund student-athletes. A considerable portion of the online sports betting tax will be set aside for a newly created state account called the Supporting Programs, Opportunities, Resources, and Teams Fund, or the SPORT Fund.
SPORT Fund
With Landry’s signature, HB639 would mandate that 25% of the tax money generated by Louisiana’s online sportsbooks be credited to the SPORT Fund. The account would be used to benefit athletic departments of public universities within the state that compete in NCAA Division I athletics at the Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision levels.
While that would qualify a large, financially sound sports school like Louisiana State University (LSU), it would also provide funding for the state’s many smaller public DI schools like McNeese, Grambling, and Southern University. Twelve schools would qualify for SPORT disbursements.
The SPORT Fund would provide revenue for scholarships, insurance, medical coverage, facility enhancements, litigation settlement fees, and Alston Awards. Alston Awards are education-related money provided to student-athletes. The SPORT Fund would not be allowed “to displace other awards or scholarships.”
State fiscal projections estimate that qualifying schools would receive around $2 million annually from the SPORT Fund.
HB639 also seeks to require that 3% of the online sports betting tax receipts be allocated to the Louisiana Postsecondary Inclusive Education Fund.
The state program, authorized through legislation in 2022 and signed by Gov. John Bel Edwards (D), provides colleges and universities with money for the “creation, operation, and expansion of inclusive programs.” It also funds the “technical assistance” in creating such programs and “dissemination of information on inclusive programs in Louisiana to students with intellectual or developmental disabilities and the parent or guardian of the students.”
The remaining online sports betting tax would go to the state’s General Fund.
Offshore Exodus?
Louisiana’s leading online sportsbooks unsuccessfully lobbied state lawmakers to oppose HB639 on claims that higher taxes mean they will need to tighten their offered odds and pull back promotional spending. Whether that will result in some bettors taking their business to offshore websites that offer better payouts will be determined in time, should Landry make the bill law.
A massive tax hike … means fewer promos, smaller bonuses, and worse odds for Louisiana sports fans,” said the Sports Betting Alliance, a trade group representing FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, and Fanatics. “That will push players back to the shady illegal market, putting our current tax revenue and consumer safeguards at risk.”
Landry is expected to sign HB639.
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