From anti-gambling laws to sports wagering: New podcast traces history of betting in North Carolina

No doubt you’ve seen the ads.

They’re everywhere.

Mobile sports betting begins in North Carolina on Monday, the final step in a long process toward legalization.

North Carolina’s first anti-gambling law was put in place in 1764. It limited winnings in any game of chance to five shillings a day. Apparently, no one had ever heard of DraftKings or FanDuel back then.

So how did the state with a long history of being against gambling get to this point?

Season 3 of "A Brief History of Triangle Sports" traces the story of how widespread sports betting became legal in North Carolina. The podcast is based on Brian Murphy's extensive reporting for WRAL News and contains new interviews of the major players in legalization effort as well as fresh reporting and historical perspective.

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The first episode starts with the beloved Dixie Classic holiday basketball tournament from the 1950s. A point-shaving scandal connected to NC State and other teams in the early '60s played a role in the demise of the popular event – and the Dixie Classic would be raised by opponents of sports betting decades later.

And if you thought the multi-year legislative fight over sports betting was rough, well, the state's multi-decade brawl over the lottery was even tougher. The lottery fight would foreshadow the battle lines for sports betting.

"In North Carolina, there are a lot of people [who] for faith and other reasons are morally opposed to gaming and don't believe that there should be any state sanctioned gambling," Gov. Roy Cooper said in an sitdown interview with WRAL for the project.

Murphy, a sports investigative reporter for WRAL News who has covered sports gambling for several years, and Tim Donnelly from 99.9 The Fan explore the history of sports betting in North Carolina. What did it take to get to this point, and how will it change sports and sports fan going forward?

Season 3 of “A Brief History of Triangle Sports” on North Carolina’s long path to legal sports betting launched Monday. Listen to the show now in your favorite podcast app.