OPINION: Can North Carolina rebound from this whiff on sports gambling? Don’t bet on it.

OPINION: Can North Carolina rebound from this whiff on sports gambling? Don’t bet on it.

Article brief provided by The News & Observer
  • Luke DeCock, The News & Observer
June 30, 2022 9:39 PM
  • Luke DeCock, The News & Observer

This was, in the parlance of the moment, a sure thing. The move toward online sports gambling, already legal in Virginia and Tennessee and dozens of other states, had been gathering momentum in North Carolina for years. A series of votes last week was supposed to push it, finally, across the line.

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What happened last week was exactly what every gambler who bet on Virginia against UMBC found out the hard way: There are no sure things, especially when the North Carolina General Assembly is involved.

One of two bills necessary to move legal gambling forward failed by a single vote last Wednesday, perhaps stalling momentum until after November’s elections, maybe longer.