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North Carolina regulators revealed on Nov. 14 that sports betting won’t launch on Jan. 8, 2024, as the state’s new gambling laws allowed.
The North Carolina Lottery Commission (NCLC), which must establish new regulations for in-person and online sports betting, held a virtual meeting on Tuesday to discuss more rule changes.
During the conference, the commission’s sports betting committee members said that too much work must be done regarding approvals for legal sports betting to launch in early January.
No start date has been specified. However, legislation approved by the General Assembly states the North Carolina State Lottery Commission has until Jun. 15 to launch sports betting.
NC Lottery Commission still has to work through many steps
According to local media WRAL, Sterl Carpenter, North Carolina’s deputy executive director for gaming compliance and sports betting, told the commission that numerous steps remain before players in the Tar Heel state can place online bets.
The commission is still not accepting applications for sports betting operators seeking to launch in the state. But, once that happens, Carpenter said the operators will need to:
- Be investigated
- Submit internal controls
- Prove that they are not accepting bets outside of North Carolina or on federal or tribal lands within the state
- Provide details on their security and responsible gambling plan
As he added, that is a partial list. Furthermore, operators must have a “written designation agreement” with specific teams, leagues or facilities to launch in the state. No partnerships in the state have been announced yet.
As WRAL reported, the commissioner Ripley Rand asked Carpenter during the Tuesday meeting: “Jan. 8 is the first date, but probably won’t be the date when betting is authorized?”
“Absolutely correct,” Carpenter responded. Commissioner Cari Boyce added that it would have taken daily committee meetings to launch betting on Jan. 8.
Next steps before setting the NC sports betting launch date
On Tuesday, the committee approved a catalogue of events that licensed operators could potentially offer. The committee also made changes to its first draft of rules for sports betting operators. But the full commission must give final approvals.
The commission will review the first rules package and could give a final ruling on their status during its next virtual meeting, scheduled for Nov. 16.
After that, a public hearing is scheduled for Nov. 20, which will focus on the second batch of sports betting rules approved by the committee last week. The public will have until Nov. 27 to comment.
