It was not entirely surprising that Nevada last week ponied up $1.3 billion in tax breaks to win the business of Tesla Motors . State officials for decades have struggled to diversify an economy based on gambling and tourism, and the prestige of attracting the high-end electric-car company's massive new lithium battery factory was too great to resist.

But who could have guessed that the Silver State's auto dealers would help usher Tesla into the state?

As Nevada lawmakers celebrated luring billionaire Telsa CEO Elon Musk's factory to the Reno area, critics and supporters of the deal debated the long-term benefits of businesses playing states against each other to secure tax breaks in return for promises of job creation and development. It is also worth noting, though, how the compact exposes the hypocrisy of state laws that ban consumers from buying a new car from anybody but a licensed dealer.

Until last week, it was illegal for a Nevada resident to purchase a Tesla directly from the manufacturer.

All across the country, including in Nevada, Tesla has clashed with dealership groups that vehemently oppose the company's efforts to cut out the middleman and sell its cars straight to buyers. Dealers argue that Tesla's sales model runs afoul of state "franchising" laws banning direct automaker-to-buyer transactions. These statutes go back decades and intricately dictate the relationship between auto manufacturers and sellers while effectively protecting the investments of new-car dealers, an influential political constituency thanks in large part to their high sales-tax collections.