A draft bill released by Republican Senate leader Phil Berger will seek to authorize development of four more casinos in North Carolina.
Known as Special Provision 2023-GEN-C18B, the draft legislation would add four brick-and-mortar locations in addition to the three existing casinos in the state owned by Native American tribes. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians owns casinos in Cherokee and Murphy. The Catawba Nation owns a casino in Kings Mountain.
The addition of the four casinos will “encourage and promote tourism in rural counties on the state border and along major transportation corridors,” according to the draft bill.
Business And Jobs Lost to Virginia
In May, Caesars Entertainment opened a temporary casino in Danville, Va. The 40,000-square-foot tent is just over the border from North Carolina, a little over an hour from the Triangle and Triad regions of North Carolina.
The temporary Danville Casino tent will slowly grow into a 500-room hotel and casino resort known as Caesars Virginia slated to open next year.
“Business opportunities and employment opportunities are being lost to this state,” the draft bill says.
The draft bill states the new casinos in North Carolina will be developed by companies with at least 10 years of experience in gaming and mixed-use, non-gaming real estate projects. The state’s Secretary of Administration will evaluate proposals submitted by casino developers.
According to the draft bill, “The Secretary of Administration shall begin accepting proposals no later than December 1, 2023, and shall accept proposals for 60 days.”
Proposals submitted by a business will include a single one-time fee of $500,000 and a proposal submission fee of $7.5 million for each district included in the proposal.
The draft bill establishes a 22.5% tax on all casino gross gaming revenue. It’s estimated that would generate about $400 million annually in revenue for the state.
For the month of August, the Virginia Lottery reported over $55 million in Adjusted Gaming Revenue (AGR) was generated from three casinos in the state: Bristol Casino, Rivers Casino Portsmouth and Danville Casino. Danville alone reported over $19 million in AGR for August.
The draft bill for North Carolina does not specify locations for the four new casinos.
It’s unclear how the bill will do moving forward. Sen. Berger has pushed for including the gaming proposal in the state budget. Republicans received significant backlash over the casinos being added to the state budget.
“For 78 days, our schools, families, economy, and our healthcare have been held hostage by the Republican supermajority’s determination to bring casinos to our state,” the Senate Democratic Caucus wrote in an open letter issued on Monday.
“This massive gamble confirms that Republicans in Raleigh think delivering for hard-working North Carolinians is nothing but a game,” the Democratic Caucus said on X (formerly Twitter). “They are rolling the dice with folks’ livelihoods to extort votes to support massive casinos and gambling in your backyard.”
Sports Betting on Its Way
In June, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper signed legislation that will launch online/mobile sports betting in the state.
North Carolina already has retail sports betting at the three Native American casinos in the state. House Bill 347 signed in June will add online sports betting and give residents the option to place a bet through a phone app or website.
The sports betting bill will also add additional retail locations in the state; they include Bank of America Stadium, Quail Hollow Country Club in Charlotte, Charlotte Motor Speedway and Spectrum Center. Spectrum Center is home to the NBA Charlotte Hornets basketball team.
The original bill stated a 14% tax rate would be applied to the sportsbook’s revenue. The newly amended bill shows an increased tax rate of 18% on sports betting operators’ gross wagering revenue.
Lawmakers estimate mobile sports betting to go live in 2024.
