Nashville, TN – Tennessee residents will have a chance to play the lottery in their own state. A referendum on a state lottery was approved last night.
It removes a constitutional ban on the games and allows lawmakers to develop a lottery patterend after those in Kentucky, Georgia, and Virginia.
The referendum had been opposed by religious leaders who wanted to preserve Tennessee's status as one of only three states with no form of legalized gambling.
But the voters' decision leaves Utah and Hawaii as the nation's only gambling-free states.
The major proponent of the lottery for almost two decades has been State Senator Steve Cohen of Memphis.