BATON ROUGE – Metro parishes approved and will now participate in fantasy sports betting after a vote Tuesday night.

Ascension, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, West Baton Rouge, and West Feliciana parish voters supported the proposal.

In East Feliciana, voters approved the measure by only a 56 vote margin.  

The Legislature voted last spring to hold the fantasy sports referendum even though it has not yet figured out how the state would earn revenue from the contests or how much money they might bring in.

Voters across the state had to decide on the item but an entire state-wide vote did not impact individual parishes. Fantasy sports betting will be legalized in parishes where voters supported the measure and outlawed where it was overwhelmingly voted down.

The item is similar to the 1990s-era video poker law.

Then, voters in 33 of the 64 parishes – most of them in north and central Louisiana – opted out of installing video poker machines.

Since then, the state’s tax revenues from video poker, land-based and riverboat casinos and the Louisiana Lottery have soared to $875 million a year, eclipsing oil and gas at over $600 million as the industry that supplies the most tax revenue.

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The Manship News Service contributed to this report.