ROCK HILL — Sports enthusiasts in South Carolina could be years away from seeing legalized gambling on games and horse races in the Palmetto State.
Or in places like York County, it could be just about six months away with a short drive north.
North Carolina’s prohibition on sports gambling ends in January when the Tar Heel State begins allowing on-site betting at eight professional sports facilities, with several in Charlotte, and online betting through apps with location verification. Legislators there agreed to join the 37 other states who have legalized sports gambling, many in just the last few years.
“The fact that if you are in Fort Mill, obviously, it’d be easy to go to Charlotte, to one of the retail sites at a stadium during a game, or the Charlotte Motor Speedway,” said Stephen Shapiro, professor in the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management at University of South Carolina. “But the fact that it’s mobile as well allows you to go to any part of North Carolina and be able to gamble by just driving across the state line.”
He predicts South Carolina will eventually have legalized sports gambling, though it may be one of the last states to do so. The state is led by Gov. Henry McMaster, who campaigned against the concept in his election last year and has long said that gambling is at odds with South Carolina values.
“There’s political opposition to gambling here, with it being a more conservative state,” Shapiro said. “That’s not going to change.”
Legalized wagering is a hard sell in conservative South Carolina, where the only legal forms of gambling are the South Carolina Education Lottery, which was approved after a hard-fought 2000 referendum, and charity raffles. Much of the reticence stems from religious opposition to betting, but opposition is also fueled by memories of the sordid era of legal video poker in the 1990s. Fort Mill, notably, was a hotbed for video poker, attracting bettors across the state line.
Nonetheless, a bordering state offering sports betting could be one of the falling dominoes that would lead South Carolina to eventually getting it legalized, Shapiro said. And some Palmetto State legislators are looking closely up north.
“North Carolina modeled their legislation after Tennessee, and so did we,” said State Rep. Chris Murphy, R-North Charleston. “Once North Carolina was able to pass their bill, I asked our staff to look at it, see what they’ve done, tweak ours and make it better.”
A comprehensive gambling bill for sports events and horse racing remains in a House committee, Murphy said, while a standalone bill on online, parimutuel wagering on horse races passed the House in April. The Senate has not taken up the latter.
For the equestrian-only version of the bill, Rep. Raye Felder, R-Fort Mill, voted against it. She does support legalized gambling in South Carolina, but said she would rather have an all-encompassing bill for it to pass.
“We don’t need to piecemeal it,” Felder said. “I’m not opposed to regulating it and taxing it, but we need to designate where those taxes will go.”
Felder said she wants to make sure mental health services could be paid for with the gambling revenue.
In North Carolina, the legislature’s plan is to collect an 18 percent tax on gross wagering revenues and 1 percent on horse racing. Youth sports and the public college system have been designated as among the prime beneficiaries, according to state officials.
“Eighteen percent is about average for most states,” Shapiro said. “New York has it as high as 40 percent.”
Hurdles remain to get a bill through the General Assembly, as well as persuading Gov. McMaster not to veto it. If he is unwavering, no gambling bill would get signed before he leaves office in 2027.
“We’re still working on the governor,” Murphy said.
With the amount of unregulated gambling already happening in South Carolina, Felder and Murphy said bringing it in as a taxable revenue source makes sense.
Staff writers Alexander Thompson and Seanna Adcox in Columbia contributed to this report.
