South Carolina lawmaker to reintroduce sports betting bill

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Sports betting apps like Prize Picks, DraftKings, and FanDuel have made it easy for bettors in 38 states, including North Carolina, to bet anywhere like your car.

But if you were to drive south and cross over into the Palmetto state—you wouldn’t be able to make a bet on anything. One South Carolina lawmaker is hoping to change that with another push to legalize sports gambling.

“It’s one of those bills that is a revenue generator for the state, a very significant source of revenue,” says Dorchester Republican representative Chris Murphy.

This would be the third attempt at legalizing betting in South Carolina. Murphy says his reason for bringing it back up—money and momentum. He believes his college and professional sports gambling bill would generate at least $100 million in revenue for the state—80% of that would go to the general state fund.

“The fact of the matter is, it’s taking place right now illegally,” Murphy says.

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Murphy’s bill will mirror North Carolina and Tennessee, two recent states to come into the gambling world.

Of the 38 states participating in the gambling world, they’ve brought in more than 2.5 billion dollars in tax revenue from an industry that generates $11 billion in revenue. Regardless, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster does not support any sports gambling bill.

“It’s interesting to note that when North Carolina’s legislation went live,  there were over a million bets, attempted to be placed in South Carolina on the North Carolina apps. So it just shows you that there that it is happening,” Murphy said.

Right now, bettors can legally bet on fantasy football on apps in South Carolina. Murphy still plans to add a sports gaming component and a fantasy sports component to the legislation.

“They came to me and wanted to be included in the legislation that I’ve been proposing because they want to be regulated and they want to keep the bad actors out,” Murphy said.

Drew Pechulonis supports the initiative, even writing a dissertation for a class at the University of South Carolina on the subject. In his paper, he suggests implementing a tax on gaming companies to help push the bill across the finish line.

“Just to encourage competition. The last thing that politicians want to do is raise taxes on their constituents. And so, they’re always looking for new revenue streams. South Carolina has a huge pension fund deficit. They’re pretty far behind on education in the country. The infrastructure is not as good as the surrounding states. It’s important for them to start looking at some other options to increase their tax revenue,” said Pechulonis.

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The College Football National Championship Trophy is on its tour across the country during college football season. One of its stops was in Charlotte at the Walmart on Pineville Matthews Road, just a few miles from the South Carolina border.

Shoppers had the opportunity to take pictures with the national championship trophy and talk about what sports betting has been like since North Carolina adopted gambling. It’d help college and professional football fans like these.

“Once everybody started doing it, I was kind of like ‘Hey, this is something fun to do.’ And definitely I know people who were on vacation in South Carolina and couldn’t get even though they’re from North Carolina while they were over there and they felt like they were missing out. And so it’s just something fun to be a part of. I’m betting on it for this week at Duke’s Mayo Classic and for NC State to win,” said North Carolina State and UNC Charlotte Alumuna Annie Turk.

Murphy says there won’t be a horse racing component to his bill. There will be a piece in the bill that sets aside money to help those who may have gambling addiction issues.

He plans to file the bill after the election.

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