Tennessee Cracks Down on Offshore Sports Betting Operators

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00:00we'll start off with the state of tennessee and in this case it's targeting offshore sports books

00:06this has been going on for years across the country sam i mean dare i say in the last year

00:10it does feel like the cease and desist are actually working i don't know why all of a sudden

00:15they seem to be working now for years and years they had to chase down these sports book operators

00:19outside of the country right like they couldn't come back in the country and they were all like

00:23threatened but i mean once these letters go out it seems like they're following the rules here

00:28yeah no great observation by you craig over the past year we've seen states like tennessee states

00:35like michigan really galvanize their efforts in terms of cracking down on these offshore sports

00:40betting operators which to your point have they're not new to this country they've been here for a

00:45long long time since the proliferation of legal sports betting once you know paspa was overturned

00:51that really brought you know to the light more sports betting conversations that were going on

00:56i think a lot of lawmakers in particular might not have been you know keen to what was going on behind

01:01the scenes but now you have tennessee which has sent their fifth cease and desist letter over the past

01:05just a couple of months to an offshore sports betting operator now they've targeted bet online which

01:11is a panama-based sports book it's a website you can access in pretty much any state uh where you just go

01:18online you bet there's no age requirement uh they certainly don't pay any taxes to the state of tennessee

01:23they don't pay the 750 000 license fee to the state either there's no restrictions on the bet types

01:30there's no actual player protections to ensure that people are actually getting paid out so tennessee is

01:35now cracking down on yet another offshore sports book they face about a 50 000 fine that online was

01:42actually just targeted in michigan where it did leave after a cease and desist and michigan has sent

01:47over 40 of these letters now to a bunch of these different online sports books and to your question

01:53of why it's taken so long for a lot of for a lot of you know the years there's been this conversation

01:58that you know the states don't have the resources to enforce the cease and desist once they go out

02:03you know if a company that's not following the law just chooses to keep not following the law it's kind

02:08of like okay where do we go from here where's the enforcement but to your point they've the offshore

02:13sports books have kind of you know waved the white flag and say okay you know we don't think it's worth it

02:18uh to keep operating here for a long time people have speculated you know if the states can't enforce

02:23it then would the federal authorities step in and we have definitely not seen the you know the federal

02:29government really move in any kind of direction when it comes to cracking down on uh illegal gambling

02:35really at all especially with offshore sports betting you know the limited stuff we see is them maybe

02:40cracking down on like a mob ring or something like that right that would get more headlines obviously

02:45and you know these the fact that we had 40 offshore uh receiving cease receiving cease and desist in

02:52michigan in this past year this goes to show you how big uh this environment is there's tons of these

02:57websites out there they pop up every day but really interesting now that we've seen them start to leave

03:03these states um we've seen it pour over into other states massachusetts has been very vocal about wanting

03:08to do the same thing so it seems kind of like when one state does it and has success then the others say oh

03:13maybe we should do that and it seems to be relatively easy for them to send out these letters

03:17now tennessee's also been the most vocal dare i say state in addressing prediction markets which

03:23right are technically not offshore sports books they're technically not sports books depending on

03:28who you ask they're operating legally depending on who you ask they've asked the cftc to step in and

03:34say hey you know this is sports betting this you should be licensed here you know you can't skirt

03:39rules this way cftc of course has not said anything on this front but notable that tennessee is was the

03:45most vocal on that front and has now been cracking down on offshores again and we'll probably see this

03:49continue i'm sure this would be another theme of this year it seems like low-hanging fruit for the

03:53states to go after and really get an accomplishment done yeah thus far this is the year of discussing

03:59the prediction markets and whether or not they'll survive or not i don't i don't think there's any

04:02question about that

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