Tennessee lawmakers Wednesday postponed legislative action on an online sweepstakes casino ban bill, though final passage could still come as early as the end of the month.
- Tennessee’s sweepstakes casino ban is nearing final passage after multiple unanimous committee approvals and strong bipartisan support.
- The bill would impose civil and criminal penalties on dual-currency operators, many of which have already exited the state.
- Despite sweeping bans, iGaming legalization efforts continue to stall nationwide due to political resistance and industry divisions.
The Tennessee House Finance, Ways, and Means Subcommittee postponed discussion on the bill after Rep. Scott Cepicky, the proposal's sponsor, asked the bill to be reconsidered the following week. The motion to delay debate temporarily halts progress but doesn't prevent it from passage.
A bill's sponsor can "roll over" a bill for later discussion for a variety of reasons, including revisions or to drum up greater support for passage.
The Ways and Means subcommittee would still have to advance the bill to the full Finance Committee, which directs the legislature’s spending. From there, the bill could go up for a final vote before the full House floor in the coming weeks.
The Senate last month passed a companion bill 32-0. A separate House committee recently approved the sweeps ban bill postponed Wednesday without opposition.
The widespread, bipartisan support in Tennessee underscores growing momentum to ban sweeps casinos in statehouses across the country.
With passage still seemingly imminent despite the temporary delay, dual-currency digital sweepstakes casino operators and their partner third-party vendors operating in Tennessee could face criminal and civil penalties later this year once the bill takes effect. Several leading sweeps operators have already exited the state.
Tennessee is poised to join as many as a dozen states that have passed sweepstakes ban bills in the past 12 months or are considering similar action.
Indiana and Maine have both already passed sweeps ban bills that were introduced in 2026. Maryland and potentially Minnesota could do so in the coming months.
iGaming legalization stalls
The booming push to ban online casino-style games has not come with a similar effort to try to legalize, tax, or regulate these platforms.
Only eight states have legalized real-money online casino games. This is despite the billions of revenue generated from unregulated sweeps operators, which underscores Americans’ interest in playing these games.
Dual-currency operators allow users to play for free but generate their revenue from selling a separate, paid-for digital currency. Critics in statehouses nationwide have argued, largely successfully, that these games circumvent existing gambling prohibitions.
Major digital gaming operators, including FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM and Caesars, have applauded the sweeps bans, but these same stakeholders have gained little traction when lobbying for legalizing real-money games. In many states, lawmakers have embraced brick-and-mortar casino gaming along with online sports betting but fear online gaming from mobile devices could spark gambling addiction and other societal problems.
Unlike sports betting legalization efforts, the gaming industry itself has been divided by iGaming. While the larger national operators vocally champion these games, smaller and regionally focused companies such as Cordish and Churchill Downs have opposed them, arguing it would hurt existing in-person gaming revenues, costing jobs and diminishing tax revenues.
Both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly passed versions iGaming legalization bills this year, but key differences over revenue allocations to existing gaming operations derailed the bill, preventing the required identical version passing in both houses. Maryland iGaming proponents voluntarily pulled an iGaming legalization bill last month, and no other states are seriously considering similar legislation.
