Louisiana's Move to Model Online Casino Legislation

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Transcript

00:00All right, I know in Louisiana, they're having a hearing on online casino legislation.

00:08We understand that this is also another booming product with a lot more people not heading

00:12out to the casino, but just going on an app of some kind.

00:16You feel like more legislation is coming soon on this?

00:19I definitely do.

00:20And it's funny that you bring up Louisiana, because that's where the National Council

00:23of Legislators from Gaming States, or NICLGs as it's called, has earlier this summer, at

00:30their summer meeting, they said, we're going to put together model legislation so that

00:34legislators can very easily introduce it, and we're going to help educate and get lawmakers

00:39on board and make sure this is good for the industry, good for responsible gaming, good

00:44for everybody.

00:46And so they did release a draft.

00:48It's on their website.

00:49You can go read it if you want.

00:50I did.

00:51I put together a story about it.

00:54It's mostly about education.

00:56There's a big component about how online casino doesn't cannibalize in-person casinos, because

01:05that's been a huge concern for a lot of states, including Maryland, where we saw an effort

01:09last year, and that was the major downfall to the bill.

01:13And so it's a lot about that, a lot of base tax rates of 15% to 25%, different things.

01:19It also explicitly outlaws sweepstakes, which we've talked a lot about and are kind of gray

01:24market operators that are kind of skirting regulations and have the industry upset.

01:32So it explicitly outlaws that.

01:34And they're going to be talking about it this month in New Orleans at their winter meeting

01:37and kind of finalizing it.

01:40Public comments are open until December 31st.

01:42So there's a lot of, you know, there will be a lot of discussion.

01:45I'm sure there will be some changes made, but the final stuff should be released probably

01:50sometime in January or February, and maybe we'll see some more introduced from this as

01:56it is.

01:57But, you know, to your point, there are already states making jumps to introduce online casino

02:03legislation without this, but this will definitely, I think, spur some more conversations and

02:08actions in that sense.