Tennessee is one of the many states that has a legalized sports betting industry but don’t expect the state to be accepting legalized bets anytime soon.
The Tennessee Sports Gaming Act came into being from July 1 sans the signature of Governor Bill Lee. The Republican Governor had previously expressed apprehension toward opening his state to more forms of gambling.
Governor Lee said that he doesn’t see the expansion of gambling through online sports betting as contributing to the best interest of Tennessee.
He however praised the General Assembly for limiting sportsbooks to online betting operations only and not allowing land based sports betting lounges.
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The Sports Gaming Act tasks the Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation and its board to establish and implement rules and regulations required to formally launch online sports betting in the state.
The law also mandates that a nine-member sports wagering advisory council be formed before US online sportsbooks operators can officially accept bets. This stipulation has been the main cause why online sports betting operations has been delayed as more than half of the regulator seats still left without appointees.
The governor, the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the House are expected to name three appointees each to the board. This new regulatory council will be responsible in advising the lottery board in governing and supervising online sportsbooks in the state.
Tennessee has decided to only allow online and mobile sports betting to take place in the state. There is no provision for now to allow any land based establishments to accept direct bets. This is a rather unique approach by Tennessee legislators given the fact that Tennessee is the only state amongst the 18 states to have legalise sports betting so far to only allow online sports bets.
This provision to ban land based sports bets has not gone down well with the American Gaming Association (AGA) which campaigns on behalf of legalised gambling in the country. Casey Clark who is the Senior VP of Strategic Communications for the AGA said that it would be better for Tennessee to accept both online and land based sports bets.
Clark states that the best way to combat the illegal sports betting market is to ensure that the legalized betting market gives bettors all of the betting options available in the illegal betting market which Tennessee hasn’t done.
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