Tennessee Sports Betting Bill Amendment to Permit Online Wagering Only?

Tennessee lawmakers are set to introduce a sports betting legalization bill with an interesting twist, when compared to most other state’s legislative pieces…

…in that it will ONLY permit online wagering!

Hoise State Committee has held discussions this week that prompted Rick Staples, the Representative who originally filed the said bill, to remove all land-based properties from the bill’s language.

There is no info available on what made him focus only on online sports betting. If the bill comes to , Tennessee would become the first US state to only offer online sports betting to its consumers!

The Curious Case of Tennessee

Right now, the only state to have both in-person and internet sports betting available is New Jersey.

His bill that was originally introduced in January – HB0001- was going for the opening of shops and kiosks that would serve as sportsbooks across the state…

…but as things stand right now, The Volunteer State will only be allowing online and mobile-based betting.

Taxes, Costs and Other Unpopular Measures

Operators who get licensed for operating sportsbooks in this state (which would cost them $7,500)…

…will be required to pay a 10% tax on adjusted gross revenue. If a single operator wishes to offer more than one sportsbook, they would have to attain a license for each of the sportsbooks.

The legal age for placing sports wagers in Tennessee would be 21 and punters would have to be physically located inside state boundaries.

Since there are no official regulatory bodies yet instated, Staple’s bill suggests the establishment of a Tennessee Gaming Commission that would be watching over all sports wagering activity. The bill is due for another discussion on March 26th.

February’s Fruits of Labor

Last month saw the assembly of state lawmakers from Knoxville, Nashville and Memphis who have all introduced their respective views on sports betting provision…

…which was acted out of something of a rush to keep gaining on neighboring Mississippi that already has an operating sportsbook in full motion. Republican Senator, Steve Dickerson, said that he expects the amount of money to come from sports betting to be huge, because “thousands of people are already engaging in other forms of online betting.”

In December, Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation and International Game Technology expanded their ongoing collaboration by g a contract that is valid until June 2025. Under the of agreement…

…IGT will supply twenty GameTouch terminals to the Lottery.

Source:

“Tennessee sports betting bill faces online-only amendment”, igamingbusiness.com, March 20, 2019.