Tennessee House sending sports betting bill to Governor

The Tennessee House of Representatives has passed a bill that aims to legalize sports betting in the state. They’ve passed it on to Governor Bill Lee. Local media outlets have reported that Governor Bill Lee will allow the bill to pass into law without signature.

SB0016 passed through the House by a vote of 51-40 very quickly after passing through the state Senate by a vote of 20-12, after a couple of amendments. SB0016 replaced HB0001 which passed the House last week with the House now agreeing with the new amendments which were made by the Senate.

Governor Lee’s stance

Governor Lee hasn’t been shy with his opposition to plans to legalize sports betting. However, it has been reported that he will allow the bill to pass into law in spite of his concerns. After being contacted because of the reports, Governor Lee’s office responded by directing people to a local media publication that has comments from Lee’s press secretary, Laine Arnold, suggesting that this will indeed be the case.

Laine Arnold explained that the governor has said that he doesn’t believe that the expansion of gambling is best. However, he recognizes that many in the legislature found this to be an issue that they’d like to explore further. Arnold went on to say that the governor plans to let this become law without his signature.

SB0016 has provisions for wagering through kiosks as well as interactive wagering. One of the three Senate amendments states that operators will have to pay $50,000 to apply for a license as well as $750,000 to secure the permit. The sports betting tax rate would be set at 20%, down from the 22.5% rate that the House originally proposed.

Official data from sports leagues when offering betting services are the only type of data that operators will be permitted to use when offering betting services. There is an exception to this rule. If a licensee can prove that the governing body of a sport or sports league, organization, or association cannot provide a feed of official league data for live betting “in accordance with commercially reasonable terms, as determined by the board.”

The bill also states that professional sports leagues would have the ability to request that betting or certain types of wagering on certain events be prohibited. A request of this nature can only be made if there is a clear reason that betting would be “contrary to public policy, unfair to consumers, or affects the integrity of a particular sport or the sports betting industry.”

If the bill passes without a hitch, it should come into effect from July 1^st of this year.