Louisiana Withdraws Prop Bet Ban After Fiscal Note Reveals $37M Annual Revenue Hit
Louisiana Senator Katrina Jackson-Andrews pulled SB 354, a proposed ban on prop bets and micro bets
Louisiana came close to becoming one of the most aggressive states in the country on sports betting restrictions. Then the bill’s sponsor saw the math and pulled it herself.
Sen. Katrina Jackson-Andrews withdrew Senate Bill 354 on March 31 after a fiscal analysis from the Louisiana Legislative Fiscal Office quantified what a ban on prop bets and micro bets would cost the state. The numbers were significant enough to stop the bill in its tracks before it could advance out of committee.
“That doesn’t mean that I’m done with this legislation,” Jackson-Andrews said after the withdrawal. “That means, for this session, I am done.”
The Fiscal Reality
The fiscal note attached to SB 354 told a blunt story. Banning prop and micro bets would cut more than $20 million annually from Louisiana’s general fund between 2027 and 2031. It would also eliminate roughly $17 million annually across other dedicated state funds. The combined hit exceeded $37 million per year.
The SPORT Fund, which finances student-athlete programs, would lose more than $9 million annually on its own. Other affected programs include education, healthcare, and responsible gambling initiatives.
Jackson-Andrews, who also serves on the Senate Finance Committee, said she could not in good conscience advance a bill with that kind of fiscal note attached without a plan to replace the lost revenue. “I realize the serious nature of what it does to the budget,” she said.
Why the Numbers Are So Large
The scale of the revenue impact reflects how dominant prop and micro bets have become within Louisiana’s sports betting market. According to data from the Louisiana Gaming Control Board, prop and micro bets account for approximately 40% of mobile sports wagers in the state and 13% of retail wagering.
Those are not niche products. They are a core revenue driver for the sportsbook industry and, by extension, for the state tax base built on top of it. Any legislation targeting them is effectively targeting a large share of the state’s sports betting economy.
The Policy Tension
Jackson-Andrews was direct about why she introduced the bill in the first place. “My issue with prop betting and micro betting is this, to be very clear, is that it’s very compulsive in nature,” she told the Senate Judiciary B Committee. Supporters of the measure echoed arguments that high-frequency wagering formats create heightened addiction risks and reduce natural stopping points for bettors.
Those concerns are not unique to Louisiana. A recent Pennsylvania lawsuit against DraftKings, FanDuel, and the NFL alleges that micro betting products are designed to encourage compulsive behavior through rapid, continuous wagering. The complaint draws an explicit comparison to slot machines. New Jersey’s Senate recently advanced a committee bill that would ban micro bets entirely.
The Louisiana case illustrates the central dilemma facing lawmakers across the country. As prop bets and micro bets drive an ever-larger share of sportsbook handle, restricting them means restricting the revenue stream states have come to depend on.
A Fragmented National Picture
States are taking sharply divergent approaches. Louisiana is already one of only a handful of states, alongside Vermont, Ohio, and Maryland, that ban college athlete prop bets. Kentucky this week passed a broad gambling reform bill that adds a similar ban on props tied to in-state college athletes. Massachusetts has advanced a bill that would go further, targeting both prop bets and in-play wagering broadly. New York, Colorado, and Minnesota all have bills under consideration.
Washington moved in the opposite direction. It recently enacted legislation allowing wagers on college games while restricting bets tied to individual athlete performance, drawing a line between game-level and player-level markets.
The result is a patchwork of state-by-state rules with no clear national consensus on where the appropriate limits are.
What Comes Next in Louisiana
SB 354 is dead for this session. Jackson-Andrews made clear she intends to return in 2027 with a revised approach that better accounts for the fiscal consequences. What that looks like is an open question. Any future bill will need either to target a narrower slice of the market, or to include a mechanism for replacing the revenue it eliminates.
Louisiana’s experience is likely to shape how other states approach similar legislation. When the fiscal note is this large, the policy debate does not end. It just gets harder.
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