La. Senate approves tax on fantasy sports betting

BATON ROUGE - The Senate on Tuesday approved a 15.5-percent tax on online fantasy sports betting along with an amendment that represented a last-ditch effort to keep the possibility of betting on real sports alive.

The bill now goes back to the House, which supports the tax on fantasy sports betting but has opposed gambling on real football, basketball and baseball games.

The Senate vote came after an angry fight between two Republican lawmakers from Metairie -- Sen. Danny Martiny, who has pushed to legalize real sports betting, and Rep. Cameron Henry, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, who bottled up Martiny’s bill in his committee.

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