The Tennessee Senate passed a sports betting regulation bill that would give some authority to the Sports Wagering Advisory Committee, rather than limit it to providing suggestions.
The bill allows the committee to consider disciplinary action against sportsbooks, and bring about a decisions on Tennessee sports betting without the approval of the Tennessee Education Lottery‘s Board of Directors, according to Legal Sports Report.
A House committee expected to take up a companion bill.
Recent situations may have prompted the legislative move. The Lottery allowed local sportsbook Action 24/7 to accept cash deposits through a sister company, high-interest lender Advance Financial 24/7. A prior bill to ban the practice died this year.
A customer of both Advance Financial and Action 24/7 told a House member winnings were being withheld to pay back a loan. Advance Financial denied the accusation.
In addition, questionable betting activity surfaced from two sportsbooks during Super Bowl wagering. In one instance, a worker with Action 24/7 helped some 40 bettors place illegal proxy bets. The lottery suspended the Action 24/7 license indefinitely over almost two dozen cases of alleged debit card fraud in which the sportsbook took too long to report. However, Action received a temporary injunction, in part because the lottery failed to follow the rules.
Action 24/7 said Lottery chair, Susan Lanigan, acted unilaterally in issuing the suspension, a violation of rules.
Senator Richard Briggs worried that the current bill doesn’t go far enough.
“I’m supportive of this amendment but I think at some point in the future we may need to look at a different structure on how we’re doing it because there have been problems,” Briggs said. “We’re new to the sports gambling game but it just seems like there have been issues that have come up along several lines and we may need to have another structure to look at this.”
In related news from Tennessee, players wagered $205.9 million in March, the second-highest total since the state opened sportsbooks last November.
The figure represented a 16.8 percent increase over the $176.3 million in February and 2.6 percent off the $211.3 million record set in January, according to figures published by the Tennessee Education Lottery. Players won $187.9 million in March, leaving $16.1 million in adjusted gross revenue for the month, a gain of 23.9 percent over February, according to iGaming Business.
The state collected $3.2 million in taxes.
