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SportsTranscript
00:00All right, let's talk about Louisiana here, and they'd like to raise the taxes in sports betting, but for a very specific purpose, which is actually pretty innovative and interesting, Pat.
00:14Yeah, so, you know, we've talked a lot about potential tax hikes in sports betting.
00:20You know, governors across the country, including in Ohio and Maryland and New Jersey, have suggested bumping up the tax rates, and that's all for various reasons.
00:29We know a lot of state governments are in need of revenue, and why not bring some more from something that's happening already, like sports betting?
00:36Well, in Louisiana, they want to go ahead and practically double, well, no more than double this tax rate from something of 15% to around 32%, and, you know, some of that would go extra money towards addiction programs and the like, but it was also raising money for 11 state universities in Louisiana, and that's, you know, it would be something
00:59like $32 million a year that would be extra to go towards these programs for college athletics.
01:05I think, you know, it's no secret that athletic department budgets are skyrocketing within the new NIL age, and, you know, this is going to be helpful or would be helpful if it does pass.
01:17You know, it did pass one committee, and we'll look towards the House floor, but, you know, maybe for LSU, maybe that's not a huge drop in the bucket for splitting up 32 million among 11 schools, and LSU's athletic budget is something like $200 million a year.
01:35That's not going to be huge for them.
01:36But some of these other Louisiana schools have athletic budgets of like $20 million, so a couple million dollars here and there could be huge, and, you know, I think some lawmakers might be a little iffy on using sports betting funds to then fund athletics, but, you know, we'll see what happens.
01:54Certainly, there has not been a ton of appetite in the other states that have tried to raise their sports betting taxes.
02:00You know, the lawmakers in Ohio said no to DeWine's suggestion of doubling it, but, again, they just doubled it in 2023, so maybe that's why there wasn't the appetite there.
02:12Maryland, they raised it a little bit in discussions.
02:14We're still waiting to see finalizing there.
02:17And New Jersey, we're not sure exactly what's happening yet either, but certainly there's not a ton of appetite to boost them too much, but, you know, maybe if it's for a good cause like college athletics, maybe they will.