Tennessee Online Casinos
Tennessee has a distinctive lack of casino-style gambling options. Both online casinos and land-based gambling establishments are banned under a state constitution that generally prohibits games of chance.
Additionally, Tennessee banned the next-closest alternative (sweepstakes casinos) in 2026. A constitutional amendment is the only viable path to legalizing online gambling in Tennessee, and lawmakers currently show no interest in starting that process.
Tennessee Online Gambling Options
None of Tennessee’s legal options are a replacement for online casinos, but until state law changes, these are the only remaining alternatives:
- Tennessee Online Sportsbooks: Tennessee has had legal online sportsbooks since 2020.
- Tennessee DFS Apps: Daily fantasy sports sites have been legal and regulated in Tennessee since 2016.
- Tennessee Online Lottery: The official TN iLottery app allows players to buy tickets for draw games and keno online, but it doesn’t offer slot-style digital scratch-off games.
- Social Casinos: Some of the sweepstakes casinos that have exited the Tennessee market still offer social play (Gold Coins only). Social casinos offer games like slots and blackjack, but you can’t win real money or redeem your virtual coins for cash.
Sweepstakes Casinos in Tennessee
Sweepstakes sites are no longer a viable alternative to online casinos in Tennessee.
The legal climate for Tennessee sweepstakes casinos turned hostile in late 2025, when Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti sent cease-and-desist letters to 38 sweepstakes casino operators.
His office reported full compliance from all recipients, including Chumba Casino, Stake.us, and WOW Vegas.
The legal situation deteriorated even further for operators when the legislature passed SB 2136 in May 2026. The bill banned anyone from operating or supporting an “online sweepstakes game” based on virtual currencies and mimicking casino-style games.
Tennessee Online Gambling Laws
Tennessee law prohibits all forms of gambling not specifically authorized by the legislature. The general prohibition on gambling covers online casinos, making it illegal to both operate and play at online casinos.
TN Code § 39-17-501 defines gambling as “risking anything of value for a profit whose return is to any degree contingent on chance, or any games of chance associated with casinos, including, but not limited to, slot machines, roulette wheels and the like.”
Tennessee’s gambling laws make it a Class C misdemeanor to engage in unauthorized gambling as a player and a Class B misdemeanor to promote unlawful gambling. The law comes down even harder on operators: anyone convicted of owning or materially supporting an illegal gambling operation faces a Class E felony.
Technically, a person playing online slots from Tennessee is committing a misdemeanor. However, we are unaware of the state ever targeting a player merely for gambling online from home.
Instead, Tennessee authorities have so far focused their enforcement efforts on illegal gambling operators. The more immediate risks for players are those that the Sports Wagering Council (Tennessee’s sports betting regulator) frequently mentions in press releases: the security of their funds and the fairness of the games they play.
For example, in a September 2026 press release detailing enforcement action against illegal online gambling operators, the Sports Wagering Council did not threaten players. Instead, it urged “Tennesseans who may have deposited funds with these entities” to withdraw their money immediately.
Will Tennessee Legalize Online Casinos?
Tennessee is extremely unlikely to legalize online casinos before the end of the decade. Lawmakers would have to approve a constitutional amendment before the legislature could even consider a bill to legalize online casinos, and nobody in the General Assembly has proposed doing that.
Tennessee’s Constitution Bans Casino Games
The biggest obstacle is the Tennessee Constitution, which bans the legislature from authorizing casino-style games. Article XI, Section 5 bans “games of chance associated with casinos, including, but not limited to, slot machines, roulette wheels, and the like.”
The constitutional ban means that the only way we’ll get legal Tennessee online casinos is through a constitutional amendment, a multi-year process with an uncertain outcome. Tennessee deliberately made amending its constitution a slow process, meaning it would take years to approve an amendment even if there were no setbacks along the way.
If the legislature did want online casinos in Tennessee (and there’s currently no indication it does), it would have to pass a resolution across two separate General Assemblies and then submit it for voter approval in the next gubernatorial election.
The process would look like this:
- A lawmaker files a resolution to amend the Tennessee Constitution to allow online casinos.
- Both chambers pass it with a majority of all elected members (not just a majority of those voting that day)
- After the next election, the new General Assembly passes the same resolution again, this time by a two-thirds majority in each chamber.
- Voters approve it during the next governor’s election, with “yes” votes equal to a majority of everyone who voted in the governor’s race. In other words, someone who casts a vote for a gubernatorial candidate but skips the question essentially votes against the amendment.
Tennessee Lacks An Established Gambling Industry
Tennessee’s lack of an established land-based gambling industry cuts both ways as far as legalization prospects go.
On one hand, the absence of experienced operators complicates the regulatory picture. Tennessee would have to decide how to issue licenses (which are usually tethered to land-based casinos in other states) and create a regulatory body to oversee casino-style games.
On the other hand, established gambling interests have derailed numerous legalization efforts in other states over concerns that online casinos would cannibalize revenue from their land-based facilities. That is a significant and common challenge that Tennessee does not have to deal with should the legislature pursue legal online gambling.
Market Potential of Tennessee Online Casinos
Legal Tennessee online casinos would likely generate $1 to $2 billion per year at market maturity. That would make Tennessee one of the nation’s largest online casino markets.
The low end estimate comes from a 50-state Vixio report published in 2024, which estimated that a legal Tennessee online gambling market would generate annual revenue of $1.15 billion. For what it’s worth, that same report said its own revenue forecasts are “likely to be conservative.”
Higher-end (but still plausible) estimates come from extrapolating other states’ results to Tennessee’s 7.3 million residents. West Virginia online casinos earned roughly $250 per resident in 2025, which works out to about $1.83 billion in Tennessee. New Jersey and Michigan each generated roughly $300 per resident in 2025, which works out to about $2.2 billion in Tennessee.
Extrapolating other states’ per-resident revenue figures isn’t a sophisticated forecasting model, so take the above estimates with a grain of salt. In a state with no land-based casinos, nobody can say how strong the casino habit is here.
That said, Tennessee online sportsbooks took roughly $5.9 billion in wagers in 2025, so demand probably isn’t a problem. The tax rate and licensing requirements would also have major impacts on both the market as a whole and how much the state collects.
Tennessee Online Casinos FAQ
Wes Burns has more than a decade’s worth of experience as a writer, researcher and analyst in the legal gambling industry and is co-founder of BettingUSA.com. As a former professional online poker player, Wes approaches his work from the viewpoint of players.