How Tennessee’s House speaker helped keep a payday lender’s struggling sports gambling company alive

Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton told a lottery board official he was not happy with the panel's decision to suspend the online sportsbook Action 247; weeks later, he helped pass a bill to remove lottery oversight. (John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout) Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton told a lottery board official he was not happy with the panel's decision to suspend the online sportsbook Action 247; weeks later, he helped pass a bill to remove lottery oversight. (John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

By Adam Friedman / Tennessee Lookout January 31, 2026 11 min read

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with Tennessee Lookout. Sign up for Dispatches to get our stories in your inbox every week.

The powerful owners of a payday lending company faced a crisis in March 2021 when their other business, a now-defunct sports gambling operation, was under investigation by Tennessee regulators.

The couple, Michael and Tina Hodges, had already turned to Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton in 2014 to create a new triple-digit interest loan called a “Flex Loan.” The couple’s company, Advance Financial, through the Flex Loan, went on to make hundreds of millions of dollars lending to the state’s most financially vulnerable.

Now they needed Sexton’s help keeping their fledgling gambling business, Action 247, afloat as it tried to compete with sportsbooks like FanDuel and DraftKings, which were dominating the market in Tennessee and around the country.

In many states, regulators try to keep lending and betting separate. Virginia, for example, bans gambling operators from offering loans to customers. But in Tennessee, it’s different. A payday lender and a gambling company can have the same owners and operate out of the same storefronts.