In North Carolina, all that’s left is the celebration. State lawmakers gave final approval June 7 to legalize sports gambling on mobile devices and at select in-person sports venues across the Tar Heel State, paving the way for betting to begin next year.
In the course of a week, the last of the Senate committees approved the bill, which added a higher tax and horse racing in a state with a single harness track. And the House approved the Senate amendments.
Only Governor Roy Cooper’s signature is missing, and that is not believed to be a hindrance.
The House gave its second concurrence to changes made by the Senate to House Bill 347, which allows betting from mobile devices on professional, college, electronic and Olympic sports as well as horse racing. The bill allows in-person sports betting at eight locations across the state, and 12 mobile operators who pay $1 million for a five-year license.
But the legislation also allows the North Carolina Education Lottery Commission up until one year from the bill becoming law, upon Cooper’s signature, to go live with betting.
“We’re going to work as fast as we can to get it up and running,” Van Denton, communications director for the lottery, told WRAL News this week.
Said Rep. Pricey Harrison, an opponent of the bill: “January 8, 2024 is still too soon. That’s a little bit more than six months away to set up a gambling regulatory structure in the state.”
The state could make $100 million in tax revenue by year five, based on economic estimates.
“The Governor believes that North Carolina taxpayers should benefit from sports wagering, which is already occurring, and this legislation provides a way for that to happen within the bounds of the law,” Jordan Monaghan, a Cooper spokesperson, said in a statement. “Additional work needs to be done to make sure the NC Lottery Commission has what it needs to set up and regulate this industry.”
Supporters have pointed to additional tax revenue, the proliferation of legal gambling in neighboring states like Tennessee and Virginia and the freedom of adults to spend their entertainment dollars as they see fit as reasons for legalization in North Carolina.
GeoComply, which performs geotracking checks for mobile sports operators to make sure users are located in a legal betting state, said it tracked more than 1.5 million geolocation checks from North Carolina to mobile sports operators in the first six months of 2023. Those checks came from more than 155,000 sports wagering accounts.
“The interest is undeniable,” said John Pappas, GeoComply’s senior vice president for government and public affairs, told lawmakers. “It is also undisputed that regulation will give adult bettors in North Carolina safe and accountable options to wager and the state an important new revenue stream.”
Cooper has given almost every assurance he will sign the bill.
The horse racing addition includes pari-mutuel wagering, which means all bets are placed together in a pool. The winners are then paid with the collected bets.
For fiscal year 2023-24, total revenue should exceed $22.1 million, growing to $100.6 million by fiscal year 2027-28.
Another big change in HB 347 is the establishment of licensing requirements for advance deposit wagering. Applicants would pay a $20,000 fee for an advance deposit wagering license so bettors can place bets online in advance of an upcoming race.
Each licensee pays an annual 1 percent tax based on the total pari-mutuel wagers placed by state residents. The Senate approved the amended bill on June 1 and sent it back to the House.
While the likelihood points toward concurrence, NC Sharp contacted East Carolina University political science professor Dr. Peter L. Francia to get his take on how the Senate additions might fare in the House concurrence.
“I don’t see the amendment moving the needle much in terms of attracting more supporters or in terms of it losing supporters,“ Francia said. “The politics surrounding HB 347 effectively remains the same even after the amendment. Opponents of the bill will continue to make the same value-based arguments against it, while supporters of the bill will continue to make the same revenue-based arguments about how legalization will provide added tax money that can go towards public benefit.”
The closest North Carolinians come is Pinehurst Harness Track, which hosts harness races and is in the National Register of Historic Places.
Betting could begin as early as January or as late as June 2024.
The eight venues that would be permitted to have either permanent or temporary in-person sports books are PNC Arena in Raleigh, WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, Bank of America Stadium and Spectrum Center in Charlotte, Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Wilkesboro Speedway, Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro and Quail Hollow Country Club in Charlotte.
The bill allocates money from license fees and taxes to several different areas after the Department of Revenue and Lottery Commission receive money for expenses.
- $2 million annually for the Department of Health and Human Services for gambling addiction education and treatment programs.
- $1 million annually to North Carolina Amateur Sports for grants to local governments or non-profit organizations to expand opportunities for youth sports participation. Organizations in a single county can receive no more than 1 percent of the total funding.
- $300,000 to the athletic departments at Appalachian State, East Carolina, Elizabeth City State, Fayetteville State, North Carolina, A &T, North Carolina Central, UNC-Asheville, UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Greensboro, UNC-Pembroke, UNC-Wilmington, Western Carolina and Winston-Salem State.
- $1 million to the North Carolina Heritage Advisory Council for grants to assist youth teams travel to events or attract events to North Carolina.
- Of the remaining proceeds: 20 percent to the athletic departments at the above colleges and universities; 30 percent to the North Carolina Major Events, Games and Attractions Fund; 50 percent to the state’s General Fund. The Major Events, Games and Attractions Fund would provide grants to draw entertainment, musical, political, sporting or theatrical events, held no more than once a year, to the state’s sports facilities and venues.
