Online, mobile sports betting in NC becomes legal with Gov. Cooper bill signing

Place your bets North Carolina: With the stroke of a pen Wednesday, Gov. Roy Cooper legalized long-sought plans for sports gambling in the state.

Cooper signed the Sports Wagering Bill into law at the Spectrum Center in uptown Charlotte, home of the Charlotte Hornets.

“Let’s face it, sports wagering is already happening in our state,” Cooper said. The legislation will allow for regulations and safe guards on betting, he said. It will also open channels for more funding to help people with gambling problems.

The Sports Wagering Bill, or House Bill 347, will allow live, online and mobile game-day betting for teams like the Hornets and Charlotte FC, as well as the Carolina Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes.

Now, at least four of the state’s eight betting locations will be near Charlotte. Those include Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, Spectrum Center, Bank of America Stadium and Quail Hollow Country Club.

In-person sports books also are permitted at PNC Arena in Raleigh, WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Wilkesboro Speedway and Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro.

Betting will begin next year after the Lottery Commission sets up regulations and chooses a start date. People can bet on pro, college, electronic and amateur sports, and pari-mutuel betting on horse racing. Betting on youth sports is not allowed.

Gambling will start within 12 months of the bill becoming law. A previous version of the measure would have started it on Jan. 8, 2024. But with Wednesday’s bill signing, the latest wagers could start would be in June 2024.

“Everybody wants to see it by the first of the year if at all possible,” Cooper said. But the 12-month period exists to make sure everything is set up properly.

After the bill signing, Hornets president Fred Whitfield told reporters that Hornets fans have long wanted to be able to bet on sports and now they will be able to — just like fans in bigger markets do.

Debate about how to invest the revenue will continue, Cooper said. But he implored legislators to focus specifically on public education — “our future.”

Betting operators will be taxed at 18% of gross wagering revenue, money which will go to UNC System schools and gambling addiction programs.

The signing of the bill is a historic moment for the state, he added, and it will benefit the state’s economy for generations to come. He also praised the bipartisan nature of the bill’s passage.

Gambling in NC and elsewhere

North Carolina joins about 20 states that have allowed online sports gambling in the four years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a nationwide ban in 2018.

Under the Dome: Sports betting heads to the governor

The N.C. state House voted 69-44 in favor of the bill last week. The legislation took years to pass and kept legal sports betting to the state’s three casinos.

In a statement Wednesday, Kings Mountain’s Catawba Two Kings Casino said it is hopeful the bill will create new jobs in the state while preserving casino employees’ careers. The casino plans to offer casino-goers and North Carolina residents a mobile app and online platform for sports betting.

About an hour west of Asheville, Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort’s sportsbook — the room where people wager on sporting events — is adorned with flat-screen TVs, lounge chairs and private rooms for groups. But, there’s no cellphones.

The sportsbook surpassed initial revenue and interest estimates in less than a year, Eastern Cherokee Principal Chief Richard Sneed told the News & Observer last year.

Critics have concerns about expanding gambling in NC

Some critics fear mobile betting will promote more gambling addictions by making it easier to place bets.

Sneed said he hadn’t noticed an uptick in “problem gambling.”

Davidson College philosophy professor Sean McKeever teaches a class where students explore sports ethics. In a statement, he called the bill a high-stakes bet on the integrity of sports.

“If Davidson plays an A10 tournament game, nothing is tainted merely because someone out in Nevada puts a bet on it,” McKeever stated. “However, history teaches that the money behind gambling has interests of its own and that can lead to corruption like the infamous 1919 ‘Black Sox’ (baseball) scandal.”