Commissioners want to bring sports betting to Beale Street

MEMPHIS, TN (KAIT/WATN) - With sports betting legal in the United States, some county commissioners in Shelby County, TN want to bring betting to Beale Street in Memphis.

According to a report from Memphis ABC affiliate WATN, commissioners will ask Tennessee lawmakers to pass sports betting like Mississippi has already done.

Commissioner Van Turner said people are taking their money to Mississippi to play and that it is Shelby County that is losing.

“Everywhere around us they’re doing it,” Turner told WATN. “It’s like the casinos going down to Tunica, and you could see Memphians heading down there in streams.”

Commissioner Mick Wright said he didn’t know how he would side on the issue until Wednesday.

“As I took the exit of the interstate to get here this morning, there was a billboard right off 2nd Street that said come to Mississippi and do your sports betting,” Wright said.

Wright said advertisements like this asking people to come to Mississippi to bet is enough to get his support of bringing sports betting the Memphis.

According to WATN, the full commission will accept the proposal during their next regular meeting on Monday.