North Carolina Senate committee passes sports venue betting bill
| By Daniel O'Boyle
North Carolina’s Committee On Rules and Operations of the Senate has favorably reported a bill to allow both retail and online commercial sports betting – but with online betting only permitted at or near sports venues.
Under the bill – Senate Bill 688 – the North Carolina Lottery Commission would act as the regulator and issue licences to operators and suppliers in the market.
Players would be able to place bets either online or in person, but only at, or within half a mile of, “sports facilities” or other property owned by owners of these sports facilities.
A sports facility is defined as “a facility that hosts professional sports and has a minimum seating capacity of 17,000 people or a facility that hosts a professional golf tournament annually.” This would include the stadiums for the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, NBA’s Charlotte Hornets and NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, plus six different racetracks including the Charlotte Motor Speedway.