Daily fantasy sports bill passes in the Louisiana House

In a late nigt vote on Tuesday the Louisiana House of Representatives voted 67-23 to allow daily fantasy sports games to become legal in the state. The proposal now heads to the Senate for consideration.

If approved by the Senate and signed off by the state governor, the HB484 could make Louisiana the twentieth state to legalise the genre, but a November ballot will also be needed.

It received no pushback from legislators when it came up for a vote on the House floor late Tuesday night. Nineteen states already have legal online fantasy sports, according to reports from the industry.

The measure would allow each parish to approve daily fantasy sports games to become legal in their communities through a November ballot initiative. If a parish voted down legal fantasy sports, then people would not be able to play the games on their phones or computers while in that community.

One legislator advised: “If we do this, this is not going to legalize this process. This will put it on the ballot in November.” He aso pointed out that regualtions around taxing and controlling the activity would have to be drafted.

The legislation deals only with online daily fantasy sports games, which are quite different in format from traditional fantasy sports.