Although North Carolina sports betting is almost here, it sounds like we can hold all bets when it comes to legalizing casino gambling in North Carolina this year.
Last week, state Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, R-Eden, told reporters that such legislation likely would not come up when the North Carolina General Assembly convenes for its annual session, which is scheduled to begin April 24. Berger, who championed such a move last year and criticized House Republicans for not going along with including it in the state’s budget, cited this year’s short session as the reasoning behind that.
Lawmakers are scheduled to start this year’s session on April 24 and conclude it on July 31.
“Obviously, if there are other folks that decide that it’s something they want to pick up and move with, we’ll see what happens with that, but I certainly am not intent on moving anything in particular,” Berger said in a Raleigh News & Observer article.
House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Kings Mountain, concurred, adding that the effort to legalize North Carolina casinos “just kind of went totally off the rails” last year. The discussion surrounding the expanded gaming measure delayed the approval of the state budget until last fall.
Survey Says Voters Want Casinos
The legislative leaders’ comments came just days after a poll found a majority of North Carolina registered voters supported allowing commercial casinos to operate in the Tar Heel State (three tribal casinos are located in western and southern parts of the state). That support crossed party lines and age groups in the Meredith Poll, which conducted the survey in late January.
While legalizing North Carolina casinos won’t likely happen this year, that does not mean there won’t be any gaming issues coming up in the 2024 General Assembly session. Moore told reporters there have been discussions of allowing video lottery terminals statewide.
“You already have the lottery, you already have scratch-offs,” Moore said, according to WRAL.com. “In fact, you already have those you can play on your phone right now. So I don’t know that it’s much of a leap.”
North Carolina Sports Betting Starts Soon
If legislators approved VLTs or another gaming measure in this year’s session, it would mark the second straight year they expanded gambling in the state. Last year, they voted to expand sports betting, including online wagering, statewide after it had been allowed at tribal casinos three years ago.
Many online North Carolina sports betting apps are scheduled to launch on March 11, and the North Carolina State Lottery Commission has said approved operators can start pre-registering customers on March 1.
So far, no sportsbook has been approved for a license. Still, during the lottery’s Sports Betting Committee meeting Monday, Deputy Executive Director Sterl Carpenter told members that eight of the nine applicants for a sports betting operator license are making progress.
Stay with BetCarolina.com for the latest North Carolina sportsbook promos as they become available.
