Louisiana's dual-currency ban and racketeering law take effect Aug. 1

Louisiana's new sweepstakes casino laws took effect Aug. 1. Gov. Jeff Landry signed HB 883 by Rep. Laurie Schlegel on May 15 as Act 182, after it passed the House 99-0 and the Senate 35-0. Four days earlier he signed HB 53 by Rep. Bryan Fontenot, now Act 48.

Act 182 amends the gambling-by-computer statute, R.S. 14:90.3, so that offering dual-currency games that simulate any form of gambling falls within the crime. The maximum fine rises from $20,000 to $100,000, with up to five years in prison with or without hard labor, each wager offered or accepted counts as a separate violation, and courts must order forfeiture of profits.

The law also targets the businesses around the sites. Merchant payment processors and platform providers may not support or facilitate gambling by computer, with penalties of up to $20,000 and five years in prison; processors must not handle transactions they believe are connected to it and may block them on their own initiative. The attorney general can send cease-and-desist notices, must post a list of them online, and can ask courts for injunctions limited to the named websites; a posted notice is prima facie evidence that a supporting business knew of the activity.

Act 48 adds a set of gambling crimes to the offenses that can support a racketeering charge under Louisiana's organized crime law, which carries penalties of up to 50 years at hard labor and fines of up to $1 million.

The measures arrived a year after Landry vetoed a 2025 ban bill, calling it redundant, and after Attorney General Liz Murrill issued an opinion in July 2025 that dual-currency sweepstakes casinos already violate state gaming law.