Cooper signs sports betting into law

Charlotte Hornets

Thank you

Well Spectrum Senator thank you for the opportunity to come

and to sign this legislation here today

It's a great day for the state of North Carolina

For sure

Mayor Lyles and members of the city council

I know who are here

We also have representatives Cunningham and Harris and Senator Wade

here

In addition to sponsors of the legislation we will speak

in a minute

Representative Sain and Representative Hawkins and Senator here

We already know that North Carolina is the center of

the college basketball universe that is an unquestioned

So but in the last few decades our state has

become a prime location for professional sports particularly here in

the Charlotte area

The Hornets the Panthers the Hurricanes National Charlotte F C

the courage professional golf including the P U A U

Open Wyndham our President's Cup and professional Minor League and

farm teams and a whole lot more

It is so exciting what's happened in North Carolina This

legislation will help these professional teams to grow even more

and to thrive and attracting more of them

We've still got some holes we need to fill in

the professional sporting arena

It will also provide great paid jobs for our state

It will attract capital and help our economy grow and

it will benefit North Carolina taxpayers by giving them a

portion of the earnings

Let's say let's say sports wagering is already happening in

our state surrounding states here and across the country are

already taking advantage

And in fact today in Vermont Governor Scott is signing

similar legislation there

This legislation allows the state of North Carolina to regulate

it and to put safeguards on it as well as

providing funding for helping people with problem gambling

There has been now and will continue to be a

debate on how to invest the revenue that has been

generated or that will be generated from this legislation

And there are some very good investments for this bill

The legislators if you will allow my 32nd commercial uh

as we implement this legislation I urge the legislature to

focus more on investing funding in public education our teachers

our students our public schools need us not only with

this revenue in this legislation but across the funding stream

of our state those investments need to be made now

because public education is our future workforce

So that's my commercial

This is a historic moment for the state of North

Carolina and this will benefit our economy for generations to

come

Now I'm going to introduce to you legislators who had

a major role in getting this legislation passed through the

legislature and I will first introduce Representative Jason

So great to be here at this moment

This is truly a momentous occasion for our state for

our athletes for our teams for everybody in this state

I grew up I grew up watching NASCAR

I grew up watching the Hornets love football love our

Panthers have quickly become a soccer fan

Someone has to play the rules to me and I

certainly love hockey but we have so many opportunities to

help this state with this bill and it didn't come

just because one legislator decided that they need to run

a bill

It was all about teamwork

We got legislators in the office in the audience who

are a big part of that

There's a great picture of Car Cunningham and us on

the floor just discussing right

We went to the vote last week and the other

caucus a bipartisan effort by cos a Clements John Bell

We work on this together and the governor's office was

tremendous

Stay in touch every day making sure that we were

listening to the concerns of our legislators listening to the

people of state

So nothing happens without building a good team

We had a great team

We got it done

It was tough that first year where we had just

one vote shy from getting this bill passed but it

gave us an opportunity to work harder and there's always

been a championship but you're always working for the championship

And so to work harder to do the hard work

to talk to all the legislators to talk to people

across the state and build support for it

And governor I thank you for your help

Thank you

Work hard

They talk to people in their pockets

We literally walk through their doors in their office and

checked them off

Are you yes or no or you maybe or you

could be there

What do we need to do to help you get

there I do want to thank my staff who's here

in the audience Clark and Angela who also work late

hours who are interested in sports betting as well

What we did we got this over the and we

are so glad to do this

We are so glad for the investment that we're putting

back in our small schools in this state

I think there are some athletes that are here

They will benefit schools like Charlotte Greensboro

That's a tremendous opportunity

And my co sponsor Zain saw the opportunity to get

young people involved in sports and involved in the outdoors

So there's provision for the bill to do that

So it is a wonderful day

I thank you for being here for celebrating

It's great to be in Charlotte here at the home

of Hornet which my son governor my son didn't even

last time I come down to Charlotte

He's at Coach davis' basketball camp

He hosted a one day on state but he won't

even pass that along to me

He said maybe there's at least one thing the governor

might cheer for one day

It all seems to thank you so much

I appreciate it

Uh Thank you

Thank you Jason

Thank you for saying

I really appreciate this opportunity

Welcome everyone

Uh So this is historic education and I I can't

underscore that enough

Um That that first term of this bill fail by

one vote

It was a challenge for us and we needed to

really think and assess how we going to move something

like this

This is not an easy lift for North Carolina for

the governor

I want to thank you for saying if you got

this bill you sign and so you held to your

word

And so thank you for signing H B 3 47

I'd like to congratulate and thank my fellow primary sponsors

and Bill supporters those who took a hard vote to

bring this long awaited vote to a reality and this

was bipartisan the entire way

And so I see of course we heard for representative

who helped to lead our efforts with his caucus across

the board

Represent representative Bill Senator period who can join us

Harris represent Cunningham

We really want to thank you everyone

Jason was not joking

We had everybody on the list and we were checking

it twice even until the last moment because we just

wanted to make sure that everyone felt hurt and that's

one of the things we learned from one term to

the next that everyone had to take this back to

their district and to explain what the benefits were from

North Carolina

And I think together we were able to do that

So so many contributed to this

But for me one of the things that is most

important is that thousands of residents will be able to

safely and securely and legally place that securely and legally

you know that it's happening in the dark

And this opportunity allows us to bring it into the

light and of course that comes from

And so that revenue distribution excites me really the most

because as he mentioned before the ability to bring new

organizations into this to the revenue she is absolutely important

within the amateur sports and expanding participation and belonging for

kids

Those grants will allow kids to be a part of

things that they would not have been before

And I'm so glad to be a part of that

effort

We also have budget even dollars for our public universities

uh traveling across as our university conferences expand

It takes a lot to put money into gas tax

right into buses into planes

And so we are having the opportunity to support them

in that way

But then also the local grants to assist you uh

you uh team travel and to attract um small events

to small regions you know attraction fund that will help

with large events from around the country

But every single county needs the opportunity to be able

uh to attract something small regional tournaments to the area

to help with economic development

And so this bill absolutely covers it all and it

does help our sports teams and our large cities

And so we're so grateful for this opportunity

So thank you all for being here and thank you

Governor for signing this bill

Thank you Jason and Ashman and others for helping us

to get us across the line

And I'm excited to be in Charlotte too

This is a great day

This is a historic day for the city

Um I'm gonna start by saying this is a fine

those in the know how I feel about five bills

We started working me and Jim Perry actually began this

discussion about four years ago um in Charlotte and Ruth

Chris and we began discussing what we could do and

what a bill like this would do for North Carolina

Um First and foremost this bill would be a job

creator which is very very important to this state and

let people know not just in this country but around

the world that North Carolina is open for business

We want to expand what we do and we want

to make it available and make ourselves available for the

world not just for the country but for the world

because things like this will help our education system

It'll help roads it'll help small business large business entertainment

is business and it's a very important part and we

didn't find out anything else during COVID

We found out how important entertainment and entities like this

are

So I'm so thankful to be a part

I hate that um Senator Jim Perry wasn't able to

be here but all of those in the house and

the Senate the governor's office that helped us get this

done

We are so thankful to you

I remember those days when um I would walk over

to the house and the house folks would tease me

because I kind of walk up and down and talk

to Carla about who I need to get on my

knee and talk to in the house

And I had already done everything that I could do

in the Senate and we we were able to get

that done and then we came up one short but

we over the Christmas break we kept making phone calls

we kept talking to folks and we got it done

Um one of the things that I will say that

I enjoyed that happened that Jason saying was responsible for

and that was making me a fan of that that

Governor Jason did it all by itself

But um these are the kinds of things we're excited

about and we are so happy and I thank once

again all of you that helped in getting this done

I won't try to call names because I miss someone

But thank you and may God bless you

Good to see you

I want to know that I do have a pair

of socks that I just simply could not find this

morning

So I apologize for that

I also want to say that the North Carolina Lottery

commission is hard at work

Now beginning the process of implementation of this legislation it

is a mammoth job that they are working very hard

and look forward to additional help from everybody to make

sure that this works

This is truly a bipartisan accomplishment

One of many of the last few years and this

certainly will help North Carolina compete and that is critical

So now we'll move this apparatus and bring to the

table and get ready to sign this bill

We have a number of people representing our North Carolina

sports teams

If you guys will come up along with our legislators

or Mayor Lyles and we'll sign this bill

Chance

Oh yeah you got

come

Yeah

Yes I know

Right

We now have sports

Yeah

Gotta stand up stand up man

Awesome