Louisiana HB 53 and HB 883: What the Two Laws Actually Say — and Why Every Other State Is Watching

To understand why Louisiana chose racketeering statutes rather than a standalone gambling ban, the legislative history matters. In June 2025, Governor Jeff Landry vetoed an earlier bill that would have explicitly criminalized sweepstakes casino operations. His stated reason was that existing law already gave regulators sufficient authority to act, making a new criminal statute unnecessary. He was not entirely wrong. Following that veto, the Louisiana Gaming Control Board issued cease-and-desist letters to more than 40 sweepstakes operators, and Attorney General Liz Murrill issued a formal legal opinion concluding the platforms already violated state law under existing provisions. Most major operators exited or removed Sweeps Coin offerings in response.

The 2026 legislative session, which opened March 9, did not start from scratch. It built directly on what enforcement had already established. Representative Bryan Fontenot pre-filed HB 53 on January 30, 2026, framing it not as a new prohibition but as an enhancement of the existing enforcement toolkit. Representative Laurie Schlegel's companion bill, HB 883, took the complementary approach: codifying what the AG and governor had argued was already true, removing any ambiguity about whether the dual-currency model constitutes illegal gambling under Louisiana statute.

Sources: Louisiana Legislature, HB 53 prefiling record, January 30, 2026; SBC Americas, "Louisiana Sends Gambling Racketeering Bill to Governor," May 4, 2026; Legal Sports Report, "Three States Send Bills Against Sweepstakes Casinos to Governors," May 7, 2026.

HB 53 does not create a new criminal offense. Its mechanism is simpler and arguably more powerful: it adds existing gambling crimes to the list of predicate offenses under Louisiana's Racketeering Act (R.S. 15:1352). The act already covers organized crime activity; HB 53 extends its reach by designating the following as racketeering predicates under new subsections R.S. 15:1352(A)(89)–(95): gambling by computer (R.S. 14:90.3), gambling by electronic sweepstakes device (R.S. 14:90.7), unlawful wagering by a prohibited player (R.S. 14:90.8), bribery of sports participants (R.S. 14:118.1), cockfight wagering, and gambling in public.

The significance of the racketeering designation is not just the sentence exposure, though that is substantial. Under the Racketeering Act, prosecutors pursuing a racketeering case can target not only the individual who committed the predicate acts but also anyone who participated in or directed the criminal enterprise. For sweepstakes operators, that means the legal theory can reach the executive team, the investors backing the platform, and the infrastructure providers that make the operation possible.

The penalties under Louisiana's Racketeering Act, once a pattern is established, include a fine of up to $1 million per count and imprisonment at hard labor for up to 50 years, or both. Louisiana's Chief Deputy Attorney General testified in support of HB 53, characterising it as harder-line enforcement language than almost any anti-gambling statute in the country. That assessment appears accurate: no other state has attempted to use racketeering law as the primary enforcement vehicle against sweepstakes casino operators.

Sources: Gaming America, "Louisiana House Passes Two Sweepstakes Casino Bills," April 17, 2026; iGaming Future, "Your Sweepstakes Casino Could Be Classed as a Racketeering Operation in Louisiana," April 22, 2026; Louisiana Legislature, legis.la.gov.

Where HB 53 operates through the racketeering framework, HB 883 takes a more direct route. It amends Louisiana's "gambling by computer" statute to explicitly include online or mobile games that use a dual-currency system allowing players to exchange one form of currency for cash, prizes, or cash equivalents, and that simulate any form of gambling. That language is aimed with precision at the Gold Coin and Sweeps Coin model.

The practical significance of HB 883 becomes clear when read alongside HB 53. The racketeering statute (HB 53) requires predicate gambling offenses; until HB 883, there was a plausible argument that the dual-currency model did not clearly constitute "gambling by computer" under R.S. 14:90.3. HB 883 removes that ambiguity. Once it takes effect on August 1, any operator running a dual-currency sweepstakes platform accessible to Louisiana players is in violation of R.S. 14:90.3, which is itself a predicate offense under HB 53's racketeering amendment. The two bills are designed to interlock.

HB 883's liability scope is also notably broad. The bill targets not only platform operators but also platform providers, gaming content suppliers, geolocation providers, promoters, media affiliates, and any person who knowingly supports or facilitates a covered sweepstakes gaming platform. That last category — anyone who knowingly supports or facilitates — is language that encompasses payment processors, software vendors, and potentially marketing affiliates.

Sources: Gambling Insider, "Louisiana Prefiles Several Gambling Bills," March 2, 2026; SBC Americas, "Louisiana House Passes HB883," April 15, 2026; Gaming America, "Louisiana House Passes Two Sweepstakes Casino Bills," April 17, 2026.

Most state sweepstakes bans to date have targeted the platform operator. Louisiana's dual-bill approach is different in scope. A compliance team or payment processor reviewing the combined effect of HB 53 and HB 883 as of August 1 should note the following categories of potential exposure:

The "knowingly supports or facilitates" threshold in HB 883 will be subject to interpretation when it is tested. The question of what constitutes "knowing" facilitation, and whether a service provider who geoblocks Louisiana but whose geoblocking fails on a small number of sessions has crossed the threshold, is not answered in the statutory text. That ambiguity itself creates compliance costs for anyone in the supply chain.

Source: Gaming America, "Louisiana House Passes Two Sweepstakes Casino Bills," April 17, 2026.

Every state that passed a sweepstakes casino ban in 2025 and 2026 used a version of the same model: a civil or criminal prohibition on the dual-currency structure, with penalties aimed at operators. Those statutes are significant but manageable from a business perspective. The worst realistic outcome for a platform that continues operating in Indiana after July 1, 2026, for example, is civil penalties of up to $100,000 per violation. That is a number operators can model.

A racketeering designation changes that calculus. The maximum fine of $1 million per racketeering count, combined with up to 50 years imprisonment, is not a number operators can absorb as a cost of doing business. More significant, racketeering statutes permit the prosecution of the enterprise itself, not just individual acts, which means a sustained pattern of operations in Louisiana could support a single sweeping prosecution rather than a series of discrete violation notices.

Industry observers have noted that HB 53's framework is straightforwardly portable. Any state with an existing racketeering statute, and most do, could add gambling-by-computer offenses as predicate acts by a simple amendment. The legislative effort required is minimal. The deterrent effect on operators, payment processors, and affiliates would be substantial.

Sources: Bettors Insider, "The Sweepstakes Casino Ban Wave of 2026: Oklahoma, Tennessee and Louisiana Just Made It Official," May 6, 2026; Cryptsy, "Sweepstakes Casino Bans 2026: Which States Are Out," June 2026; Sweepsy, "Louisiana Passes Dual-Currency Gaming Ban," May 2026.

Louisiana was already effectively closed to sweepstakes casino players before HB 53 and HB 883 were signed, given the AG's legal opinion and the 40-plus cease-and-desist letters issued in 2025. Most major operators, including those profiled on Wager Layer, had already exited the state or removed Sweeps Coin functionality for Louisiana residents. The two new laws codify what enforcement had already achieved and sharply escalate the consequences for any operator still attempting to serve the state.

The criminal liability under HB 53 and HB 883 attaches to operators, service providers, and affiliates. Individual players are not the targets of racketeering prosecution under these statutes. However, accounts held by Louisiana residents on non-compliant platforms face closure, and the terms of most sweepstakes casinos do not guarantee return of balances upon regulatory closure of a state.

Sources: Chumba Casino T&Cs v23.3, April 2026 (chumbacasino.com); Stake.us Terms of Service, current version (stake.us/policies/terms); Betting News, "Louisiana Signs HB 53," May 2026.