Online Casinos in Tennessee

Real-money online casinos

Not legal, none licensed

Online sports betting

Legal, online-only, multiple mobile operators

Daily fantasy sports

Legal, licensed by SWAC

Online lottery (TN iLottery)

Limited, Powerball, Mega Millions, Cash 3 and Cash 4 via app

Sweepstakes / social casinos

Banned by SB 2136 / HB 1885 (May 2026)

Commercial casinos

None, no statute authorizes them

Tribal casinos

None, no federally recognized tribes in the state

Charitable gaming

501(c)(3) annual events only

Minimum age

21 sports betting, 18 lottery and DFS

Regulator

Tennessee Sports Wagering Council

Launch date

Nov 1, 2020Tennessee Action 24/7, DraftKings, FanDuel, and BetMGM took the country’s first all-mobile sports bets on a single launch day. No retail sportsbook has ever operated in the state.

Tennessee’s spot in the order

1st all-mobileOut of 38 sports-betting states in May 2026. Every other launched market built a tribal or commercial retail floor first.

Active licensees

10Down from a peak of 11. Two operators left the market between Nov 2025 and Jan 2026 without a single new license filed to replace them.

Locally owned books

0After Action 24/7 closed on Jan 16, 2026. Founder Tina Hodges said the state’s handle tax made the small-operator model unworkable.

The licensee count cannot grow without a fresh application, and no new operator has filed since the Bally Bet entry. DraftKings and FanDuel together took a majority of the FY 2024-2025 handle per the Sports Wagering Council’s monthly reports, with BetMGM, Caesars, and Fanatics splitting most of the remainder. Tennessee’s smaller operators carry promotional spend that the handle tax structure makes hard to justify, which is the same pressure that pushed Action 24/7 and Betly out.

1. Nov 5, 2002

   Voters approve the lottery amendment

   Tennessee Amendment 1 passed with 58 percent of the vote, rewriting Article XI, Section 5 of the state constitution to authorize the Tennessee Education Lottery. The first ticket sold on January 20, 2004.

2. May 24, 2019

   Sports Gaming Act becomes law without the governor's signature

   Governor Bill Lee said he was philosophically opposed to gambling but let the bill through. It took effect July 1, 2019 and is codified at Tenn. Code Ann. § 4-49-101 et seq.

3. Nov 1, 2020

   Online-only mobile sports betting launches

   Tennessee became the first US state to run a sports betting market with zero retail sportsbooks. DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, and Action 24/7 opened just after midnight.

4. Jul 1, 2023

   Sports betting moves to a handle tax

   SB 0475 dropped the 20 percent adjusted-gross-revenue tax and replaced it with a 1.85 percent tax on total handle, a first for any US state. The same bill renamed the regulator from the Sports Wagering Advisory Council to the Sports Wagering Council.

5. Apr 24, 2026

   Sweepstakes casino ban clears the legislature

   SB 2136 and HB 1885, sponsored by Sen. Ferrell Haile and Rep. Scott Cepicky, passed the Senate 25-5 and the House 69-17-1. Governor Lee signed the bill in May 2026, classifying dual-currency online sweepstakes games as unlawful under the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act.

FY 2024-2025 handle

$5.59BYear ending June 30, 2025. First time wagering activity crossed $5 billion in a single Tennessee fiscal year. Up 18 percent from FY 2023-2024.

FY 2024-2025 tax

$103.4M1.85 percent of total handle. First Tennessee fiscal year above $100 million in sports-betting privilege tax.

Tax base

HandleTotal cash wagered, win or lose. Every other US sports-betting state taxes adjusted gross revenue, the cash kept after paying winners. The base affects book payouts on every losing month.

Cumulative since 2020

$345.8MTotal privilege tax collected from licensed sportsbooks across the first five-plus years of Tennessee sports betting per the Sports Wagering Council.

The handle base lets the state forecast revenue straight off the topline number, but it shifts every risk of a losing book month onto the operator. A fiscal note attached to SB 0475 documented that 9 of 11 Tennessee sportsbooks had paid the $25,000 hold fine in 2022, choosing the penalty over the cost of changing their lines. The 1.85 percent rate is roughly revenue-neutral against a 20 percent AGR model at the industry standard 9-10 percent hold, but it is structurally heavier in soft months and lighter in the March Madness and NFL openers.

Lottery for Education

80%Of every sports-betting privilege tax dollar. Statutory split established under the 2019 Sports Gaming Act. Funded the HOPE scholarship for the first six fiscal years.

State General Fund

15%Routed at the legislature’s discretion. Tennessee’s general fund is large enough that sports-betting tax is a rounding error inside it.

Problem-gambling programs

5%For prevention, treatment, and research. The smallest dedicated problem-gambling cash flow per capita of any state with legal mobile sports betting.

HOPE 2026 deficit

~$80MReported by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission and Axios Nashville. Sports-betting tax hit $103M the same year, but most of it was redirected to a K-12 construction fund.

The redirection took the form of a deficit fallback. Sports-betting tax flows to the construction fund unless lottery revenue overall falls short of HOPE obligations, in which case the gambling money fills the gap first. Lottery sales have flattened since 2023, instant-game spend has been pressured by sweepstakes and DFS substitution, and the construction fund now functions as the senior claim on a flat revenue base. Tennessee Lookout, Axios Nashville, and WATE have each tracked the same dollar flow against the same shrinking HOPE balance through the spring of 2026.

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Fines issued

$600KAcross 12 illegal offshore sportsbooks through Sept 18, 2025 per SWC press releases tallied by Legal Sports Report and the Tennessee Conservative.

Per-violation fine

$50KStandard amount imposed after a cease-and-desist letter expires without operator response. SWC has not yet stacked multiple violations against any single book.

Cease-and-desist window

~30 daysFrom letter to fine. Operators that respond and geofence Tennessee inside the window avoid the penalty. Most named operators ignored the letters.

Major offshore exit

BovadaPulled out of Tennessee in October 2024 after a $50,000 SWC fine. Largest offshore book serving US players; departure became the model for the dozen actions that followed.

• Bovada

  Curacao

  First major offshore exit, Oct 2024.

• BetOnline

  Panama

  Cease-and-desist May 20, 2025, then fined.

• Lowvig

  Costa Rica

  Fined $50,000 on June 18, 2025.

• Sportsbetting.ag

  Costa Rica

  Fined $50,000 on June 18, 2025.

• BetAnySports

  Costa Rica

  Part of the July 15, 2025 batch of five.

• Bookmaker

  Costa Rica

  July 15, 2025 batch.

• JazzSports

  Costa Rica

  July 15, 2025 batch.

• Everygame

  Curacao

  July 15, 2025 batch.

• BUSR

  Costa Rica

  Fined May 19, 2025.

• BetUS

  Curacao

  Earlier 2025 batch.

• MyBookie

  Curacao

  Earlier 2025 batch.

• XBet

  Costa Rica

  Earlier 2025 batch.

None of the fined operators paid the penalty voluntarily; SWC publishes the action and works the payment-processor and ad-network side to choke off the revenue stream. The criminal-liability reach the Oklahoma sweepstakes ban writes into statute does not exist in Tennessee. SWC enforcement is purely civil and works through the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act after April 2026, when SB 2136 expanded the same framework to dual-currency sweepstakes platforms.

• Online-Only Sports Betting

  Authorized by the 2019 Tennessee Sports Gaming Act and live since November 1, 2020. Licensed mobile sportsbooks including DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, and Caesars take wagers from anyone 21 or older physically inside the state. There are no retail sportsbooks anywhere in Tennessee.

• Daily Fantasy Sports

  Governor Bill Haslam signed the Fantasy Sports Act in April 2016, making Tennessee the third state to regulate DFS. SWAC took over DFS oversight in July 2023 under Public Chapter 143 and licenses DraftKings, FanDuel, Underdog, and PrizePicks. Players must be 18, hold one account, and stay under a $2,500 monthly deposit cap.

• TN iLottery App

  The Tennessee Education Lottery quietly launched online ticket sales through its iLottery app in January 2025, reading existing law to allow digital sales. The app sells Powerball, Mega Millions, Cash 3, and Cash 4 to players 18 and older inside Tennessee. Scratchers and most draw games stay retail-only.

• Charitable Gaming

  Article XI, Section 5 of the state constitution lets the legislature authorize an annual game of chance run by a qualified 501(c)(3). The Secretary of State licenses one event per nonprofit per year. There are no charitable casino nights, poker rooms, or HHR machines in Tennessee.

The closest retail floor for most Tennesseans sits in Mississippi. Tunica’s six casinos cluster about 37 miles south of downtown Memphis along US-61. Southland Casino Hotel sits about 10 miles west across the Mississippi River in West Memphis, Arkansas, and serves the same metro. East Tennessee residents drive to Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina, roughly 120 miles from Knoxville. None of the neighboring markets offer online slots or live-dealer table games to Tennessee residents inside their borders, which is the gap any future TN iGaming bill would have to argue into.