Louisiana lawmakers advanced a comprehensive gambling racketeering bill that would tighten legal action against unlawful gambling, such as online sweepstakes casinos, with strict punishments. HB 53 now awaits Gov. Jeff Landry's signature.
Key Takeaways
- Louisiana's HB 53 classifies sweepstakes gambling offenses under racketeering law, not a standalone ban.
- Convicted violators could face prison sentences up to 50 years and fines reaching $1 million.
- Gov. Landry vetoed a prior sweepstakes bill in 2025 and has not yet signaled his intentions.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Bryan Fontenot in January, cleared the House in March with an 86-11 vote and the Senate in late April with a 27-9 vote. After passing without amendments, it was enrolled and signed by legislative leadership before landing on the governor's desk.
HB 53 takes a different approach than most anti-sweepstakes legislation seen elsewhere in the United States. Rather than creating a standalone prohibition, it folds a set of gambling-related offenses into Louisiana's existing racketeering statute.
Under the bill, activities like operating electronic sweepstakes devices, computer-assisted wagering, public gambling, cockfight betting, and bribing sports participants would all qualify as predicate offenses under the Louisiana Racketeering Act.
That classification puts offenses on the same legal tier as organized criminal conduct, allowing prosecutors to pursue ongoing illegal gambling operations as enterprises rather than processing individual violations one at a time.
Penalties attached to HB 53 far exceed those found in comparable legislation around the country. Offenders found guilty of racketeering under the bill could face fines of up to $1 million and prison sentences of up to 50 years of hard labor. If the value of the racketeering activity surpasses $10,000, a mandatory five-year minimum sentence applies with no possibility of parole, probation, or suspension.
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AG's opinion set stage long before HB 53
The current legislative push did not emerge in a vacuum. More than nine months before HB 53 reached Landry's desk, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill issued a formal legal opinion that shaped how the state, and potentially others, would approach the sweepstakes casino issue going forward.
Last July, Murrill concluded that online platforms offering casino-style games through a dual-currency model were operating as illegal gambling businesses under Louisiana law. Her opinion pointed to court decisions in other states that had identified the hallmarks of gambling within these platforms, including casino-style environments, high payout rates, perpetual operation, and the tendency of users to replenish their virtual currency balances rather than engage with any underlying promotional product.
Gaming law attorney Daniel Wallach, writing in Forbes, described the opinion as the first of its kind issued by any state attorney general and argued it gave other state AGs a replicable legal framework for pursuing similar enforcement without waiting for legislative action. Within weeks, the Louisiana Gaming Control Board sent cease-and-desist notices to roughly 40 sweepstakes operators, and most major platforms complied.
An American Gaming Association survey conducted around the same time found that a large majority of paying sweepstakes users prioritized the redeemable virtual currency over any other feature. This detail reinforced Murrill's core argument that the promotional framing was secondary to the gambling activity itself.
