With about 14 months of sports betting in Louisiana in the books, yes, the pun was intended, the amount of money wagered in the first year of legalized sports betting in Louisiana went beyond the expectations of Ronnie Johns, chairman of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board.
According to Johns, more than $2 billion were wagered in sports betting.
That amount is a bit skewed, says Johns. Find out why below in The Thanh Report.
When I visited his office in Baton Rouge, Johns told me while there’s been more than a full year of retail sports betting in Louisiana, which is when a wager is physically made at an actual gambling location in the state, there hasn’t been quite a full year of mobile sports betting…which Johns says is where most of the money generated in sports gambling takes place.
Come February, Louisiana can comfortably say it’s had a full year of mobile sports betting. That said, the $2 billion in sports wagers and the subsequent $30 million generated in tax revenue from those wagers serves as a good benchmark for a conversation about how sports betting is going and perhaps growing in Louisiana.
I’ll be the first to admit, I know close to nothing about sports betting or gambling. I do know that in the build up to the January 2022 launch of legalized sports betting in Louisiana, I couldn’t escape the commercials, billboards and all kinds of advertisements about sports betting.
Say it with me, “We are all Caesars!”
That blitz of media sort of calmed down after sports betting in Louisiana became official, but it kept me curious about what that world is all about, and what kind of money is moving through it.
So, I decided to go to the person who regulates sports betting, and practically all other forms of gaming in the state, to get some schooling. Turns out, he’s not an expert in sports betting.
Listen to my podcast episode on sports betting and why it’s actually a relatively small player in Louisiana.