Though not directly related to the House settlement, a newly passed Louisiana law is directing millions of dollars in sports betting tax revenue to college athletic programs across the state.
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The measure—House Bill 639, sponsored by state Rep. Neil Riser, R-Columbia—was signed into law by Gov. Jeff Landry in June and went into effect Aug. 1. It raises the tax on mobile and online sports wagers from 15% to 21.5% and earmarks 25% of all sports betting tax revenue, including from on-site wagers, for the newly established Supporting Programs, Opportunities, Resources and Teams fund.
The money in that fund will be distributed equally across the 11 public universities that have Division I football programs in Louisiana, including LSU.
The goal is to boost resources for student-athletes without violating the new rules governing revenue sharing and NIL deals.
“This money cannot go directly to students,” Sanders Colbert, a tax attorney with Stone Pigman, says. “It’s only supposed to be earmarked for things like scholarships, insurance, medical coverage, facility enhancements, litigation settlement fees and Alston awards.”
The law’s actual impact may depend on the size of the program receiving the money. About $24 million is projected to make its way into the fund annually, meaning each athletic program will receive a little over $2 million per year.
“For blockbuster programs like LSU, that’s going to be a drop in the bucket,” Colbert says.
But for smaller programs across the state, $2 million could make a meaningful difference.
Louisiana is one of the first states to establish a fund of this sort. While similar measures are under consideration elsewhere, Colbert isn’t convinced that the model will gain widespread traction.
“Louisiana is notorious for having dedicated funding sources where we specifically earmark large portions of our tax collections for specific purposes,” he says. “That’s sort of a feature of Louisiana in particular. It’s not quite clear how attractive this would be to other states.”