This summer has proven to be another significant one for those seeking to legalize betting on sports in the US. In the middle of June, the Governor of North Carolina signed into law a bill that will lead to the legalization of all forms of sports betting including online sports betting in North Carolina.
As it stands right now, placing online wagers on sports in that state remains as illegal as it is here in South Carolina, but that is a formality.
The decision has been made and it is now just a matter of agreeing the details.
A Concerted Effort
It was on 14th June that Roy Cooper, the Governor of the state, signed the House Bill 347 that will legalize all forms of sports betting, but this is no sudden move. It is the end of a concerted effort to change the law.
That began after the ruling of the Supreme Court five years ago that shifted decision-making on sports betting from the federal government to the individual states. Since then, no less than 28 states across the US have legalized it, with North Carolina being just the latest of them.
The next stage in the process will be for the state legislators and the sports betting industry to get together to fine tune the details. At the moment, February of next year is being predicted as the launch date for legal online sports betting in the state – in time for the Super Bowl 2024.
North Carolina is actually going further than some other states in liberalizing it, by allowing bettors to gamble on college sports as well as professional ones. It will mark a major change from the current situation, where sports fans are restricted to making bets in person at one of the three tribal casinos that are located there.
Online Betting to Dominate
This move will certainly be lucrative for the state. It is expected to bring in over $6 billion a year through both in person and online betting, but the latter will dominate.
Online betting is taking over in most parts of the world and providers like BetMGM Sportsbook are able to offer attractive deals to the public. When betting on sports becomes legal in North Carolina, BetMGM sportsbook promo will be similar to what they did in Tennessee.
They provided codes for betting fans that enabled them to find the most appealing bonuses and it proved very successful. This is not to suggest that bricks and mortar outlets will not also spring up in response to the new law, but they will be unable to match the quality of bonus offers and sheer convenience of being to place bets on sports online.
All in all it is a victory for the gambling lobby which has pushed hard within the state. A previous attempt to change the law last year fell short by just a solitary vote, so this move was clearly coming.
A Different Super Bowl
Among other things, it means that the Super Bowl next year will be a different experience for football fans across North Carolina. Alongside the NBA and the NHL, betting on NFL matches will make up the bulk of the activity.
However, when it comes to the Super Bowl championship, only the most blinkered fans are likely to bet on the Carolina Panthers, due to their outsider status. There will most certainly be a lot of Super Bowl bets placed throughout the state, though, now that fans do not have to go to one of the Native American casinos to do so.
This means that events such as the Super Bowl will be peak times for gambling revenue for the state and that interest in those events there will only grow.
The Future for North Carolina
There is no question that this will bring real economic benefits to North Carolina. Of the forecast $6 billion per year in revenue that sportsbooks will generate, a sizeable percentage will go to the state.
Around 18% of their gross annual income will be taken in tax. Many economists are stating that North Carolina could earn more than $100 million each year from the digital variant alone.
Much of that cash is already being earmarked for funding historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and various sports programs across the state that target young people.
In total, 12 sports betting companies will be permitted to set up shop in the state from next year, so the gambling industry will become a much more visible part of life there. That may have downsides too, but we will have to wait and see.
This is a new dawn for North Carolina and many will be wondering if South Carolina will be the next to follow suit.