It has been two long years since voters in the majority of parishes in Louisiana approved daily fantasy sports contests within state lines on the ballot. After the long wait, the Louisiana Gaming Control Board, the state’s gaming regulator officially published DFS regulations, and the Louisiana State Police Gaming Enforcement Division formally opened the license application process for any businesses interested in offering the service to state residents.
Per the published guidelines, the applications will have to be submitted to the gaming enforcement department by mail and for each applicant, the approval process will last anything from 60 to 90 days.
A week has already passed since the application process was opened but no company has expressed its interest yet, at least according to a recent update from the state’s gaming enforcement division. Either way, it is expected that leading DFS betting brands like Nasdaq-listed DraftKings and FanDuel will be coming to The Pelican State as they continue with their market expansion in the USA.
Tight, Intricate Measures in Play for Louisiana DFS Betting
One of the reasons why it has taken this long for Louisiana to launch DFS betting is because of the complicated nature of the regulatory framework of the activity. For starters, of the 64 parishes in The Pelican State, 17 of them voted against allowing DFS betting and as a result, residents in these particular parishes won’t be allowed to bet on the DFS contests.
Thus, this introduces an unusual hoop that DFS betting operators in the state will have to jump – they’ll have to introduce geo-restriction barriers that will prevent anyone in the 17 parishes from accessing the fantasy sports betting services.
Maj. Chuck McNeal of the Louisiana State Police Gaming Enforcement made some comments on the matter saying;
Quote“They’re going to be, for lack of a better word, geofencing along parish lines, whether it be the parishes who opted out are blocked out, or the parishes that opted in are blocked in. They’re going to have to demonstrate that to us, and then they’re going to have to go to one of the state-approved regulatory gaming labs and prove to them also that it is not allowed to be played in the parishes that opted out. We will also be periodically monitoring that and make sure it is operating the way it is supposed to,”
This is the very first time that states have used geofencing technology along parish lines, and not state lines and as a result, it makes the process a lot more complicated for operators interested in launching in Louisiana.
Geofencing aside, only residents that are 21 years and above will be allowed to participate in daily fantasy contest betting. The Pelican State itself will be taking an 8% cut of the net gambling revenue and these proceeds will be channeled to support early childhood education in the state.
DFS Betting Operations Likely to Launch in Late Spring
From the look of things, residents of the 47 pro-DFS parishes in Louisiana could be enjoying the activity by late Spring as long as the process goes as planned. Compared to the two years plus that locals have waited since they voted in favor of DFS
Mike Noel, the chairperson of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board gave a hint for the likely launch period in the following statement;
Quote“Once the state police begin receiving applications, it’s probably a couple of months at least because to go through the applications, there’s a number of technical requirements that have to be met, I anticipate that will take a few months.”
As DFS continues making headway, it will probably take another year before fully-fledged sports betting goes live in The Pelican State. Unlike DFS however, 8 more parishes, to bring it to a total of 55 parishes gave sports betting legalization the thumbs up. For traditional sports betting to debut next year, Lawmakers in the state must use legislative sessions this spring to draft and pass regulations that will guide Louisiana’s legal sports betting market.
