Catawba Nation opens sports gambling at Kings Mountain casino

Published 11:42 pm Tuesday, September 6, 2022

KINGS MOUNTAIN (AP) — Another sports-gambling venue opened on Tuesday in North Carolina, this time at the temporary casino opened by the Catawba Nation last year along Interstate 85 near the South Carolina border.

The sports book inside the Catawba Two Kings Casino in Kings Mountain will be open 24 hours a day — just like the rest of the gambling facility. Thirty betting kiosks and betting voucher redemption services also will be available.

The state’s other two sports books opened in March 2021 at casinos operated by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in Cherokee and Murphy.

The Catawba sports book opens two days before the National Football League begins its regular season. Betting also will be offered for auto racing, baseball, basketball, boxing and soccer among other spots.

Catawba Two Kings hopes “that a new audience in the Charlotte region and beyond will discover the casino as they come to wager on their favorite teams,” Trent Troxel, vice president of the Catawba Nation Gaming Authority, said in a news release.

The Catawba Nation is based in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The U.S. Interior Department agreed in 2020 to put 17 acres in Cleveland County, North Carolina, into trust on which to build the casino, which opened in July 2021. The casino now has 1,000 gambling machines, including electronic table games.

The General Assembly passed a law in 2019 that gave federally recognized American Indian tribes the ability to offer sports wagering in North Carolina.

Legislation to authorize sports betting across all of North Carolina — using phone, computers and in-person venues — fell apart in the state House in June.