NC is bringing online sports betting out of the shadows. That’s good. | Opinion

Welcome to NC Voices, where leaders, readers and experts from across North Carolina can speak on issues affecting our communities. Send submissions of 350 words or fewer to opinion@charlotteobserver.com.

Legal gaming protects consumers

Regarding “Do we really want a mini casino on every corner in NC?” (June 21 Opinion):

The writer is Senior Vice President of the American Gaming Association.

In recent Opinion pieces, Paul Stam and Rev. Mark Creech raised potential side effects of legalized sports gambling and pondered hypothetical threats to the integrity of sports. What both miss is that the legal market is the only place where responsible gaming, consumer protections and competition integrity are prioritized.

Let’s not kid ourselves: North Carolinians have been placing sports bets online for a long time through offshore, unregulated, untaxed websites. Unlike legal operators, these bad actors provide no responsible gaming resources, age verification, or even guaranteed payouts.

By expanding legal betting options and providing viable alternatives to pervasive illegal operators, North Carolina is creating a better protected wagering environment for adults.

The prevalence of illegal wagering can’t be overstated. American Gaming Association research shows that Americans wager an estimated $63.8 billion with unregulated sports betting operators each year. Prior to the end of the federal ban on sports betting in 2018, that number stood at a staggering $150 billion.

Clearly, regulating online sports betting migrates this action out of the shadows, bringing safeguards to consumers, tax revenue to local, state and federal coffers, and protections for the sports we love.

Since the federal prohibition was invalidated in 2018, we have greater visibility into competition integrity than ever before. Unlike the unregulated market, where competition integrity concerns are largely undetectable, legal sportsbooks operate robust compliance programs, working closely with regulators and law enforcement to monitor suspicious activities. As a result of legal operator vigilance, suspicious wagering activity is detected and bad actors held accountable. Simply put, the regulated market is doing its job.

Gov. Roy Cooper and the legislature have taken steps to protect N.C. citizens by integrating legal market safeguards, all while raising important tax revenue, part of which will help support amateur athletics. That’s a win-win for the Tar Heel state.

Casey Clark

On Pride, joy and accepting others

The writer is pastor of Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church.

As one would expect, there were many rainbows and lots of glitter. Picture the Carrboro Commons as if unicorns were in charge of decorations. That’s what it was like at a recent Pride event in Carrboro.

Most of all, there were people. People of so many colors, ages, ethnicities. But there was something more. There was joy.

Joy may have things in common with happiness. But joy is more of a gift, less of a choice. Joy is about connection, feeling a part of something larger than yourself and feeling that you belong. I suppose you could choose not to accept joy just like you can choose to fool yourself into thinking that you are not like “those people” (whoever “they” are).

The same day I attended this Pride event, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision that, most likely, will be detrimental to LGBTQ rights and allow businesses to discriminate against individuals.

Yet, I think of joy as a great leveling. Joy is about the gift of our fundamental connection. We are connected in invisible ways like the mycelium, a mass of thread-like cells that connect trees of the forest under the soil. It’s a myth that trees are solitary creatures, fighting with each other for survival of the fittest. They thrive with cooperation. Like humans. We are all in this together, if by “this” we mean life itself.

At one point at Pride, I scooped my headband-wearing, sugar-high 5-year-old daughter onto my shoulders — “Up, high! Daddy, up way high!” I spun, slowly, trying to take it all in. Everyone seemed happy in the rainbows and glitter, yet chances are that someone had recently lost a loved one and another person was terminally ill. We have so much in common, including that we will all die.

Yet, as long as we breathe, we have this moment to share.

My daughter patted the top of my head. “Put me down, Daddy. I want to be with everyone!” She ran through the Pride event with great joy.

Andrew Taylor-Troutman, Chapel Hill