Mobile Sports Betting Might Get Legalize in North Carolina

North Carolina Sports Betting Online Betting

North Carolina Sports Betting Bill Back in the Spotlight

By Blake Roberts Founder & Editor in Chief Updated: 11 August 2021

Blake Roberts Founder & Editor in Chief

Blake Roberts is the founder of Betting.US and is currently heading the creative team as Editor in Chief. Born and raised in Morgantown, West Virginia, Blake is a great sports fan, with football and basketball being his favorite. He’s our trusted voice for all betting-related matters.

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A bill that would see sports betting legalized in North Carolina is back in the spotlight after being pushed to the backburner earlier in the year.

Senate Bill 688 was introduced back in April with the aim of making mobile sports betting legal in the state. It has now started to move forward again with the bill being pushed to the Judiciary Committee by the Senate Finance Committee.

According to Senator Jim Perry, the bill has no specific deadline by which it must be passed. In fact, he said that this could be ongoing over the course of this year and into next year. However, it is moving forward again, which comes as good news for sports fans in the state, as well as sports betting operators.

Spending More Time to Understand Expectations

Perry also went on to say that this was one of those bills that would take more time because the needs and expectations of members needed to be heard and understood. He said:

Some bills we just know are going to require conversations within our caucus and that’s one of the bills we flagged early. We wanted to spend some time in conversation making sure we hear our members and understand where our caucus is as a whole.

Perry added that this bill would take a ‘little more time and conversation’ and this means more internal talks and ensuring there is enough support in place. He did add, however, that there is still no guarantee that the bill will pass, but that there are enough people who think that it is worth taking through the committee.

Concerns and Objections from Senate Members

Perry did state that there were some senate members who did have what he described as reasonable concerns and objections. However, he did say that although there was no guarantee of the bill being passed, he did not think that there would be much of a change to the votes.

He said that it was his job to count the votes and that he thought the bill had a good opportunity to pass the Senate and move forward to the House. He also said that although he was not into sports betting personally, he did not want to ignore the issues surrounding sports betting.

In addition, he said that sports betting was already taking place in the state, so it was more a case of getting regulatory framework into place for mobile sports betting than deciding on whether sports betting was right for North Carolina. Basically, he believes that the state should make revenue from an activity that is already taking place, albeit illegally.

The bill would create a minimum of ten online sports betting licenses in the state, and the maximum would be twelve. There would be a tax of 8 percent levied on revenue generated from sports betting. In addition, the license fees would be $500,000 for five years and $100,000 for renewals.