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RALEIGH, N.C. (WGHP) – The bill to legalize sports gambling in North Carolina will return to the state House with new amendments and the state Senate’s OK.
On Wednesday, the bill passed its second reading with a 38-11 vote in the North Carolina Senate, but not before senators adopted one last amendment. The full details on the amendment can be found on the North Carolina General Assembly website. The bill faces a third and final reading in the state Senate on Thursday but is unlikely to change course.
The restructured bill will then return to the House for concurrence on the amendments. Should the state House give its OK, the final stop will be the desk of Gov. Roy Cooper, who almost certainly would sign it.
The Senate Finance Committee, on Tuesday, approved significant procedural and structural adjustments, and then HB 347 was sent back to the Rules Committee, which, with little discussion and no real opposition, OKd the bill for consideration by the full Senate.
HB 347 passed the House on March 29 in a vote of 64-45, with 11 members not participating. There were 30 Democrats who voted for the bill, and 20 Republicans voted against it. But you may recall that last summer a similar bill created in the Senate failed in a very close vote in the House. Senate Bill 38, which adapted a bill already passed narrowly by the Senate (SB 688), escaped its second reading in the House, 51-50 (with 19 members not even voting).
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