Louisiana Lawmakers Send Sports Betting Harassment Bill to Governor

• Louisiana lawmakers passed a bill allowing the gaming regulators to ban residents from sports betting if found to be engaging in harassment
• The bill allows the Louisiana Gaming Control Board to ban residents from in-person or online sports betting
• Louisiana joins three other states with anti-harassment laws

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Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) will soon have to make a decision on a unanimously approved bill giving the Louisiana Gaming Control Board power to prohibit those in the state from sports betting who are found to be harassing athletes.

Louisiana lawmakers have unanimously approved Sen. Mike Reese’s (R-30) bill, SB 325, allowing the Louisiana Gaming Control Board to create rules which will allow the regulatory body to ban Louisiana sports betting residents from participating in online sports betting and in-person sports betting if found to be engaging in behavior or actions of harassment against any person involved in a sporting event

If signed into law, Louisiana will become the fourth state to allow its gaming commission to take such actions.

No Harassment of Any Kind

The Louisiana House of Representatives approved Reese’s bill in late March by a 38-0 vote. The legislation rolled through a Senate committee in early May and was then unanimously passed by the Senate on May 19 by a 101-0 vote.

If signed into law by Landry, the bill will allow the Louisiana Gaming Control Board to exclude customers from either in-person or online sports betting if found engaging in the following actions:

“Those persons who, before, during, or after a sporting event, threaten violence or harm against any person who is involved in the sporting event, where the threat is related to sports gaming. Those persons whose presence in a retail sports book or whose participation in the play or operation of mobile wagering in this state is determined by the board to pose a threat to the interests of the state, to achieving the intents and purposes of this Title, or to the strict and effective regulation of sports wagering,” Reese wrote in the legislation.

If legalized, Louisiana will be one of four states to allow its gaming regulatory board the power to prohibit customers for these actions.

Three States With Current Laws

Wyoming, Ohio, and West Virginia all currently have rules on the books allowing their regulatory bodies to ban residents from sports betting connected to harassment.

The Wyoming Gaming Commission approved changes to its regulations in December 2024 to better define harassment and voted to allow those found to be engaging in harassing behavior against athletes to be placed on an involuntary exclusion list to be banned from sports betting in the state.

The Wyoming Gaming Commission worked with the state’s attorney general’s office to amend the definition of harassment to the following:

“It means to engage in conduct including, but not limited to, verbal threats, written threats, electronic threats, lewd or obscene statements or images, vandalism, or non-consequential physical contact directed at a person that the defendant knew or would have know would have caused a reasonable person to suffer.”

Any sports bettor who is found to be harassing an athlete under this definition can now be placed on a state involuntary exclusion list to be banned from sports betting in the state.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) signed a state bill into law in March 2024, but the legislation did not go into effect until June 2024. It allows the West Virginia Lottery Commission to  effectively ban individuals from participating in sports betting for the following reasons:

• A prior conviction of this code
• A prior violation of an order from the lottery commission
• If the commission determines that the person poses a threat to the safety of patrons or participants in a sporting event or determines that the person has engaged in a pattern of conduct of harassing a sports official, coach, or any participants.

Ohio legislators also included a provision in the Ohio 2024-2025 fiscal year budget to allow state regulators to permanently ban or place sports bettors on an exclusion list if they’re found to be harassing or threatening student-athletes over a sporting event. Under the law, this does not apply to professional athletes, former Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC) Executive Director Matthew Schuler told Sports Betting Dime.

Here’s what the approved provision says:

“Allows CAC to exclude a person from participating in sports gaming in Ohio if the person has threatened violence or harm against a person who is involved in a sporting event, where the threat was related to sports gaming and made before, during, or after a sporting event. Stipulates that this provision enhances and in no way decreases a CAC’s existing broad powers and authority in this area.”