North Carolina likes its chances to produce a winner when it goes live with sports betting sometime in January. And that’s the beauty of waiting until earlier states launched and made mistakes in their process. Among the issues they will tackle is bonus abuse, where bettors create multiple accounts to capitalize on promotional bonuses.
Why step in to stop the abuse? Because it’s abuse. But it also prevents sportsbooks from using marketing dollars to sign up customers, according to NC SHARP. It also can lead to fraudulent behavior and efforts to impact the odds of sporting events negatively.
Other states have figured out what not to do. And they can learn from European markets which have already taken efforts to stop bonus abuse.
North Carolina will go against the grain by prohibiting operators from subtracting promotional offers from taxable income. ESPN Bet NC gives bettors a $150 promo but can’t use it to offset taxes.
The result of the regulations may be fewer and smaller bonuses for bettors.
Astute bettors use money from bonuses to then use those bonuses to bet both sides of a game or bet a lot on an underdog. With enough bonus abuse, consumers can have an impact on the odds of a game, acquiring more bonuses so they can bet on the favorite.
Sportsbooks are trying to police such activity, offering fewer free bets, for example. Fact is, to get the bonus credit, bettors have to bet.
In other North Carolina news, an initial meeting of the North Carolina Sports Betting Committee passed the first bunch of gambling rules. They cover outlets offering moneylines, over-unders and spreads.
The committee also clarified online sports betting outlets and physical locations, like kiosks and casinos.
Another step: separation from the state lottery operations.
“The new rules will apply to regulated sports betting and pari-mutuel actors and not our lottery retailers,” Gaming Compliance and Sports Betting Deputy Executive Sterl Carpenter said in a statement. “Lottery operations fall outside of this rule’s new manual.”
The committee included eight retail sites and twelve online sportsbooks, all expected to commence business in the new year.
“These rules would apply to any applicant seeking a license from the commission,” Carpenter said.
The committee says they’re on pace to have all their licensees running by next June, with all the major sportsbooks expected to bid.
“These are foundational rules,” Carpenter said. “This includes definitions, incorporation of industry standards, license and application rules, and rules regarding the written designation agreements for operators.”
A public participation hearing will be held on October 27 at 9 a.m. at the committee’s headquarters in Raleigh.
