RALEIGH, N.C. — Sports betting could soon be coming to North Carolina. It’s already passed the House, and Gov. Roy Cooper is in favor of it.
But where will the money will go if lawmakers pass the measure?
From the Carolina Panthers to the Charlotte Hornets, watching professional sports in the Queen City may be a lot more interesting next year, and not just because of the new draft picks.
SPORTS BETTING IN NORTH CAROLINA:
- Sports wagering gets full OK from NC House, heads to Senate
- Bets on at Catawba Two Kings Casino ahead of Super Bowl
- Senate leader: ‘Prospects are pretty good’ for sports betting
- North Carolina sports betting legislation falters in House
Christopher Boan with the website Bet Carolina said the odds look good that mobile sports betting will be passed in the coming weeks.
“We’re very confident,” Boan said.
Right now, sports betting is only legal in three casinos in the western part of North Carolina. One of those casinos is Catawba Two Kings in Kings Mountain.
House Bill 347 would legalize mobile and online sports betting, which will allow sports fans to place bets on apps like Draft Kings.
Tennessee and Virginia already allow this, and thousands of North Carolinians are already illegally placing bets through VPNs, according to lawmakers. VPNs are virtual private networks that spoof your location.
Boan thinks North Carolina should be keeping up with the Joneses.
“There is no argument against sports betting,” Boan said. “You already have sports betting in North Carolina, you might as well add legal, mobile sports betting because otherwise, people are going to use the offshore apps, they’re going to go to Tennessee, they’re going to go to Virginia, and you’re just going to get zero tax revenue out of it, and you’re going to look like a dunce at the end of the day.”
The proposal calls for a 14% tax on the sports wagering operators. That revenue would benefit schools and programs across the state, including:
- $2 million a year for gambling addiction programs
- $1 million a year to local governments to expand youth sports
- Hundreds of thousands of dollars to 10 North Carolina universities: Elizabeth City State, Fayetteville State, North Carolina A&T, North Carolina Central University, UNC Asheville, UNC Greensboro, UNC Pembroke, UNC Wilmington, Western Carolina, and Winston-Salem State University
The remaining funding will go to collegiate athletics at those 10 schools as well as a new bucket of money aimed at attracting major events. The rest goes to the General Fund.
Opponents of the measure include Rev. Mark Creech, the executive director of the Christian Action League.
“Sports wagering, commercialized gambling, is a form of economic predation, grinding the faces of the poor into the ground,” Creech said in a statement. “It benefits multinational corporations while oppressing the lower classes.”
Other opponents include Rep. Marcia Morey of Durham and Senator Jim Burgin of Harnett County, who wrote a letter to the editor for our news partners at the Charlotte Observer. They wrote in part, “Sports betting is ripe for abuse. Internet sports betting can be alluring to children who can open accounts with fake information.”
Similar concerns were raised in other states as they pondered passing the measure. Despite those worries, some sports fans who Channel 9′s Joe Bruno spoke to are ready to take a gamble.
“It’s a win-win for everybody,” resident Taylor McKinney said. “You can win some money and they still take the taxes out anyway, so you know, it don’t hurt.”
“We all have teams we love and everything, so why not just support our efforts and everything by putting a little money behind it?” asked resident Brandon Sanders.
If approved and signed into law, sports betting would go into effect on Jan. 8, 2024. That’s also the date of next year’s college football championship.
(WATCH PREVIOUS: Momentum grows for sports betting in North Carolina)
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