Bill would allow local referendums for newly legal gambling

Two weeks after the Tennessee General Assembly adjourned in April, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for states to legalize sports betting, and Knoxville Democratic Rep. Rick Staples has already filed a bill proposing legalizing it in Tennessee.

The bill, dubbed House Bill 1, was filed the day after Election Day last week, and would allow local option elections for sports gambling. Staples' proposal includes a 10-percent tax on gaming revenue, with the funds split between the state’s general fund, local governments and the state’s colleges of applied technologies and community colleges.

“We don't want to be in a position where we have to burden the citizens of Tennessee with a state income tax or raising taxes, but here's this new stream of money that the federal government is allowing for,” Staples told the Post. “My goal was to figure out a way not to mandate locals, let them vote by referendum if they want it in their area and to make sure we take that towards investment in our cities and counties and in our educational system.”

Governor-elect Bill Lee said he was opposed to sports gambling during the campaign.

“I would work with the legislature to make sure they didn’t approve it,” Lee said during a debate last month. “I think that organized betting frequently develops into organized crime that we don’t need in our state.”

He added that he would be more open to a proposal with a local option, like Staples’.

At least one Republican, recently re-elected Sen. Brian Kelsey, has signaled support for sports betting in Tennessee. He said in May that he planned to introduce legislation of his own.

The Supreme Court’s decision came in response to New Jersey’s attempt to legalize sports betting, and that state quickly voted to legalize it after the decision came down. Other states already have allowed the practice or are considering it.

Neighboring Mississippi also legalized sports betting shortly after the Supreme Court’s decision, and the state brought in $660,000 in tax revenue for infrastructure in September.

Staples said he was watching ESPN at the gym when he heard about the Supreme Court’s decision.

“I was at the gym on the elliptical and it popped up on ESPN,” he said. "I got off the elliptical — I look for any reason to do that anyway — and I sat down and immediately got on the phone with [the legislature’s legal advisors], but I forgot Nashville's an hour behind me. So I just left the gym, went home, cut it on ESPN and [hosts] Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman were talking about it, and I just sat there and watched it, started writing down stuff and I Googled the other states that were passing it. I got a hold of Legal, and we started working on it from that day and we finished it the first of October.”

The bill would also set up a state gaming commission to oversee regulation of sports betting. Members of the commission would be appointed by the governor, speaker of the House and lieutenant governor. Gambling licenses would cost $7,500 under the proposal.

