North Carolina Senators File Sports Betting Expansion Bill

A invoice with bipartisan assist was filed Wednesday morning within the North Carolina legislature that might legalize sports activities betting statewide.

According to a report from the Raleigh News & Observer, Sens. Jim Perry, a Republican, and Paul Lowe, a Democrat filed SB 688, which might enable the North Carolina Lottery Commission to supervise sports activities betting all through the state.

Sports betting is technically already authorized within the state, however the laws that Gov. Roy Cooper signed into regulation in July 2019 solely allowed wagers on the state’s two tribal casinos, that are each owned and operated by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

The state’s first sportsbook opened in mid-March, simply earlier than the beginning of the 2021 NCAA males’s basketball event, at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort. It got here practically two years after Cooper legalized it, making an enlargement nonetheless years away from rollout in a finest case state of affairs.

When Cooper signed the unique sports activities betting laws into regulation, it was estimated that it could generate between $1 million and $1.5 million yearly in new tax income for the state. The present laws, which might develop betting, is predicted so as to add $50 million to that complete, in accordance with estimates from Perry.

The invoice would tax income at 8% and would direct these funds to the state’s training system. It would additionally enable the lottery to award between 10 and 12 licenses with every operator being charged a $500,000 licensing charge and a $100,000 annual renewal charge.