North Carolina House committee approves two online sports gambling bills

Author:

Alex W

Updated:

Jun 22, 2022

Huge sports fan. Football & MLS fanatic. Lover of all things gambling - Sports betting, Casino, Poker and of course, Las Vegas.

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North Carolina Sports Betting Bills Advance through House Committee

Two bills to legalize mobile sports wagering in North Carolina passed a House committee on Tuesday. This comes just over a week before lawmakers are due to go home for the year. Both bills passed with 6-3 votes, with one legislator abstaining. Consequently, the House Judiciary 1 Committee passed Senate Bills 38 and 688, which would legalize mobile sports betting throughout the state.

Bill SB38, an unrelated bill that was passed last year in the Senate, has now been put forward as a mobile sports betting measure.

The bills still must be approved in the House Rules and House Finance, Calendar, and Operations committees, before progressing to the Full House for a vote. If the bills stumble and are not approved by the 120-member House of Representatives by June 30, sports betting won’t go live in the state this year.

All legislation must be approved in the full House and Senate before they go to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper for his signature. However, time is running out for all of these steps to be completed.

Tax Revenue set at 14%

During the committee hearing, SB38 was amended to include a 14% privilege tax gross revenue. This figure is a significant increase from the previously proposed 8% tax rate.

As per the terms of the amended bill, the fee to apply for a sports wagering license and then to reapply later would be $1 million each time. Other amendments to the bill included an increase in the amount of money to treat gambling addition from $1 million to $2 million. This amendment was put forward by Rep. Pricey Harrison and was unanimously approved.

Harrison also proposed a move to ban bettors from wagering on amateur sports. This was also approved unanimously on a voice vote.

Neighboring states have legal sports betting

Suppose mobile sports betting does not launch in North Carolina this year. In that case, residents wanting to wager on mobile devices will need to cross into the neighboring states of Virginia and Tennessee, where mobile sports betting is legal and regulated.

The only legal sports wagering options in North Carolina are inside two tribal casinos. There are no commercial casinos in North Carolina.