How Tennessee Will Be Different From Other States that Have Already Signed Sports Betting Into Law
By Space Coast Daily // February 14, 2020
It was in April of last year when sports betting was signed into law in the state of Tennessee. This makes Tennessee as one of the 20 states in the US that have already signed betting into law.
Each of these states has different and varying regulations and Tennessee appears to be standing out because of how different it is.
States like Nevada and New Jersey allow both in-person and online betting within their territories. Nevada, however, still requires an in-person registration before players could place bets online. New Jersey is pretty much giving the locals more freedom.
Meanwhile, New York and Mississippi that have only signed in-person betting into law. This means that the locals will have to visit licensed casinos and bookies to place their bets as mobile and online options are not available.
This is why many of these states’ locals are still placing bets with their mobile devices on offshore casinos or in neighboring states. Americans just need to be careful in doing this because jurisdictions are different in other countries. SilentBet is a good place to check for online casino reviews.
Anyhow, these are proof that each state does sports betting differently. However, it’s only the state of Tennessee that has only signed online betting into law. This means that brick-and-mortar casinos and gambling places are still illegal in this state.
Now, with how the online betting sector is doing across the US, one may think that Tennessee will gain a lot from this. However, this will still depend on the final regulations that the state will have in place.
The Tennesee Education Lottery Corp. is tasked to regulate the industry and it recently released the first draft of regulations to get the public and industry’s opinion and to prepare the operators who are thinking of applying for a license.
The state did run a comment period for the locals and the industry players to share their thoughts about the regulations, but so far, the regulations mainly got criticisms.
First is the amount that the applicants have to pay for the license. The licensing fee will cost 750,000 US dollars which is definitely big and even the industry giants like FanDuel and DraftKings are not keen on this. Some of the opinions also stated that this amount will just really prohibit the industry from gaining more revenue.
Next is the cap on winnings which is at 85 percent on annual winnings. This is just really big and would only put players at a disadvantage. Having this will most likely result in local punters still preferring to place their bets in neighboring states or offshore casinos and bookies. Some may even turn to illegal gambling ways instead to avoid this.
Tennessee’s proposal regarding multiple bets or parlay bets is also strongly opposed by the commenters. Even DraftKings also expressed their opposition to this as Tennessee is proposing that a total bet loss will be declared if one of the events in it ends with a tie. There are no such rules in any jurisdiction, and this just doesn’t really make sense, according to the commenters. This would just bring confusion and frustration to the players.
The use of the official league data is supported by many but this could also scare the operators away as this is another cost for them. This only becomes a problem if the licensing fees and cap on winnings will still be pushed forward.
Another big concern that operators have is the proposed marketing restrictions. There will be a 30day lottery approval before any marketing or advertising materials can be released to the public.
The operators just find this impossible to adhere to as there are game match-ups that can’t be determined as early as 30 days. Even the American Gaming Association expressed its opinion that this is simply impractical. This would just make things more difficult for the operators.
Overall, Tennessee is still getting a lot of criticisms in terms of the regulations that it has so far regarding online betting. It’s good that the state had a 45-day commenting period that lasted until January 6. These comments will be part of the next discussion that the state has regarding the launch of betting.
The next discussion will be held on February 18 with the Sports Wagering Advisory Council, and on the following day, February 19, the Tennessee Lottery’s board of directors will have to sign the final regulations to be published.
It’s still unclear if licensing will already take place after these meetings. With how things are moving, the online betting launch in this state may have to wait until the summer of this year.
CLICK HERE FOR BREVARD COUNTY NEWS
