Bill aims to ban prop bets on college sports in North Carolina
A North Carolina state lawmaker has filed a bill to ban prop bets on college sports in the state, following the call of the NCAA president and similar bans in other states.
Durham Democratic Rep. Marcia Morey, a former U.S. Olympic swimmer and NCAA enforcement staffer, was fierce opponent of the legalization of mobile sports betting statewide. Mobile sports betting launched in March and bettors in North Carolina wagered nearly $660 million in the first weeks.
The bill (House Bill 967) would ban bets on individual's statistics, such as points, assists, rebounds or total yards. It would be for college and amateur sports, which are largely defined in the law as Olympic-style events.
The bill would also ban in-person sports wagers at sports facilities for eight hours before or during any college sports event. This could impact PNC Arena, where NC State's men's basketball team plays its home games.
An identical bill was filed in the Senate (Senate Bill 788) by Sen. Julie Mayfield, a Buncombe County Democrat.
Though PNC Arena does not have an in-person sports betting facility at the moment, there are plans to open one at the Raleigh arena. A similar provision was added to a legalization bill that ultimately failed by a single vote in the House in 2022.
Republican lawmakers in North Carolina have said they have no plans to ban prop bets despite NCAA President Charlie Baker calling for one.
“Sports betting issues are on the rise across the country with prop bets continuing to threaten the integrity of competition and leading to student-athletes getting harassed,” Baker said. “The NCAA has been working with states to deal with these threats and many are responding by banning college prop bets.”
Ten states have bans on college player prop bets and other states limit those bets in some ways, according to Legal Sports Report.
A nationwide ban could cost operators about $200 million, less than 2% of the market's overall $11.1 billion in revenue, according to Citizens JMP Securities, which does research on sports gambling companies.
Former UNC basketball star Armando Bacot said he has felt some harassment from bettors on social media and elsewhere.
"It's terrible," Bacot said during the NCAA Tournament. "Even at the last game, I guess I didn't get enough rebounds or something. I thought I played pretty good last game, but I looked at my (direct messages), and I got, like, over 100 messages from people telling me I sucked and stuff like that because I didn't get enough rebounds."
"I think it's definitely a little out of hand. But at the same time too, I get the point of it too. Like, if you bet a lot of money on something, and you're, like, one pick away and somebody messes it up, I understand the part of fans being made. But it's annoying, too, at times."
Rep. Jason Saine, a Republican from Lincoln County and a top sponsor of the legalization bill, said he is open to additional laws or stiffer penalties to counter that type of behavior. But he would not support a ban on prop bets.
"I'm not going to reward bad behavior by limiting people who are behaving the right way to place bets the way they want to," Saine said.
Lawmakers could make other changes to the sports betting law during the session, which began late last month. Gov. Roy Cooper has called for a change in the tax code to allow bettors to deduct their losses from taxes owed on gambling winnings.
And lawmakers could reduce the licensing fee for operators that want to allow bets on horse racing. No operator in the state is taking bets on horse racing at this point.
