House Bill 1 (H.B. 1) in Tennessee looks to capture a piece of the growing sports gambling market. If approved, it would assess a 10% tax on all sports betting revenue, but there’s just one small problem. The state’s new governor isn’t a fan of gambling.
Tennessee’s General Assembly adjourned a scant two weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) this past May. PASPA had limited sports gambling to virtually only one state—Nevada—and its demise has opened the floodgates of new jurisdictions around the country moving to legalize sports wagers.
While the legislative body wasn’t able to capitalize on the death of PASPA during its previous session, some politicians hope to pick up the ball and run with it in the upcoming year. Representative Rick Staples has reportedly introduced H.B. 1 in an effort to launch and regulate the sports gambling industry in the state. It was submitted only a day after the midterm elections and gives communities the authorization to decide through local elections if they want sports wagering in their areas.
Unfortunately for Staples, and perhaps for H.B. 1, the midterm elections produced a new governor for Tennessee. Governor-elect Bill Lee is waiting to be sworn in and has already made it known that he isn’t fond of gambling. He is so anti-gambling that he even pronounced during a campaign debate this past October that he would work with the Assembly in order to make sure that no legislation on the subject of gambling would be approved.
The conservative governor-elect also feels that gambling is intrinsically tied to crime. He asserted during the debate, “[O]rganized betting frequently develops into organized crime that we don’t need in our state.”
The governor-to-be is well within his rights to support the topics he chooses, but he must also remember that he was elected to serve the will of the people. If they want sports gambling, he needs to give him sports gambling.
There is no doubt that sports gambling in the U.S. has already been entrenched into society. There are already five states that offer legalized sports wagers and the number is expected to grow. As more states see the potential for generating revenue from the activity, they, too, will join the list. Tennessee, however, could be relegated to the sidelines, allowed to only watch as other states fill their coffers.
