House Bill 0001 to regulate sports betting in Tennessee has officially gone into effect.
The bill was passed on May 6th, 2019 and went into effect on June 1st, 2019. This makes Tennessee the first state in the nation to offer online-only domestic sports betting.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee told the associated press that he has reluctantly allowed a sports betting bill to become law without his signature. He also issued a warning that any other attempt to expand gambling in Tennessee will be vetoed.
Governor Lee went on to say that the main reason he allowed this bill to become law is that it didn’t pursue casinos. Tennessee currently has no domestic laws to allow in-state casino gambling. TN Residents can access legal sports betting sites with the use of licensed offshore sportsbooks.
Now TN residents over the age of 21 will soon be able to access in-state sports betting platforms. Unfortunately, residents of the Volunteer state will not have access to college prop betting lines. State Representative Bob Ramsey successfully amended HB-0001 to ban all prop bets for college sports, but residents can still make bets on sides and totals.
Despite the ladder, Tennessee is leading the frontier of sports betting across the southern states. Other southern states such as Louisiana, and Florida have already proposed sports betting bills, but legislatures have a lot of work to do before either of those states allow sports betting.
HB-0001 only authorizes sports betting to take place in jurisdictions that approve sports betting by a vote. The bill imposes a 10% tax on gaming revenue, distributes 40% of that tax to a general fund, another 30% to Tennessee colleges, and the final 30% to local governments for education.
