Start your week in #ncpol #ncga with our latest Under the Dome politics podcast. Dawn Vaughan here, your News & Observer Capitol bureau chief and podcast host.
For the week of Sept. 4, 2023, I talk about gambling with Scott Ward, vice president of the Sports Betting Alliance. The alliance is comprised of sports betting companies Draft Kings, FanDuel, BetMGM and Fanatics Sportsbook.
Ward said competition with the illegal betting market is a big issue for the alliance. It was also one of the arguments made by both Republicans and Democrats who supported legalizing online sports wagering — that people were already making wagers regardless of North Carolina not passing a law until this year making it legal starting sometime in 2024.
“In the world of the internet, sports betting is around us. You can do it now in North Carolina, you could do it two years ago in North Carolina illegally, you can drive across the border to Virginia and do it legally … There’s more that are probably betting illegally on their phones with offshore apps, many of them not even realizing that it’s illegal,” Ward said.
He said the Sports Betting Alliance’s pitch to legalize it was to “bring those folks out of that (illegal) market, provide them consumer protections, tax it, provide some benefit to the state and get it up and running in a legal way.”
Ward said that people who gamble spend much of their money on the NFL, but college sports is different in North Carolina than some other states.
“North Carolina is going to be a huge college sports state. I don’t have to tell you that. North Carolinians love college sports, college basketball in particular. And so we do expect a significant market there,” he said.
Listen to the full conversation with Ward about sports betting as well as the potential for online casino gambling in the state. Physical casinos have been part of discussions as the state budget has been negotiated this summer.
Lawmakers, at least in the House, return to Raleigh on Tuesday for a voting session.
Headliner of the Week
For our second segment, I’m joined by my colleagues Korie Dean, who covers higher education, and politics reporter Kyle Ingram, who also writes our Under the Dome newsletter.
Ingram catches you up on N.C. Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls’ federal lawsuit against an oversight commission investigating her for critical comments she made about diversity in the state’s judicial system. And Dean and I talk about what kind of issues related to last week’s deadly shooting at UNC — like gun violence, gun regulations, school security or mental health funding — could be topics at the legislature and for the 2024 election.
Stayed tuned to the end for our picks for Headliner of the Week. Spoilers: Weather, football and Labor Day all get headlines.
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