Best Tennessee Online Casinos

One of the first noteworthy attempts at gambling regulation in recent decades came with the 1987 Racing Control Act, but many of its components were never put into action. A decade later, the Tennessee Racing Commission, the regulatory body created as part of the Act, dissolved its charter.

The state saw its most significant developments with the approval of Amendment 1 in 2002, leading to the launch of the Tennessee Education Lottery in 2004. Over the next decade, the Racing Control Act was repealed in 2015, and DFS contests were legalized in 2016.

Finally, sports betting arrived in TN when Gov. Bill Lee allowed the bill legalizing online sports betting and March Madness wagering pools to become law in 2019 without his signature. This culminated in the launch of sports betting in November 2020.

There are no land-based casinos in Tennessee. No casino gambling is permitted in-person or online in the state.

No in-person retail sportsbooks have launched either, as TN is an online-exclusive sports betting market, though there are several in-person sports betting “lounges” in the state that cater to online bettors.

Sports betting is currently legal in Tennessee in an online-exclusive market. The Volunteer State was the first in the United States to operate such a market.

The first online sportsbooks were launched in TN in November 2020. Most national brands, including major operators such as FanDuel, DraftKings, Caesars, and BetMGM, have launched along with a handful of smaller, locally-focused, and regional brands.

The Volunteer State has no racetracks, racinos, or bingo halls. Aside from sports betting, all explicit forms of gambling are illegal.

The state does run a lottery, which was legalized in 2003. The Tennessee Educational Lottery initially acted as the sports betting regulator before it was passed onto a new body, the Sports Wagering Advisory Council.

There isn’t much interest among lawmakers in legalizing online casinos. In fact, upon passage of the sports betting bill, Gov. Bill Lee thanked lawmakers for devising legislation that avoided opening land-based casinos.

We don’t expect a push from legislators to legalize online casinos in the future unless there is a huge shift in the opinions of politicians in the Volunteer State. That state is one of the nation’s most politically conservative and there seems little change on the horizon.

That said, Virginia opened one of its first brick-and-mortar casinos earlier this decade in Bristol, right on the Tennessee border. If more neighboring states legalize brick-and-mortar gaming options it could cause TN lawmakers to rethink their positions.