Where are we at with this NC Gambling bill?

Brian Murphy from WRAL sports investigative reporter at Murfsturf on Twitter.

I apologize for confusing you with another friend of mine, but consider yourself a friend. So we got that going for us. So sports gambling on the floor of the North Carolina legislature yesterday, how did that go? Well, it went well if you want sports gambling in the state. The house which, the house which you know less than a year ago voted down a very, very similar bill, voted yesterday 66 to 45 to approve sports gambling. It still has one more sort of formal vote here in the house that'll happen later this afternoon and then it's over to the Senate for the fun on that side. Now the Senate did pass sports gambling legislation in the last session, so it may have a more, you know, it may have an easier path over there. All right, so what changed in the house, in the bill, in the house that allowed them to approve it this time? I think first about 25 percent of lawmakers are different in the house than they were last time, so that's the first thing.

Governor Cooper, who is a supporter, also pointed out to Joe and Joe recently that he thinks that the lobbyists and the people who work on these issues did a much better job this time around of locking down support. And then I think the third thing is there's a lot of giveaways in this bill, quite frankly. All the non-FBS schools in the state, UNC system schools are poised to make a lot of money off this, at least $300,000 a year for their athletic department and as much as 20 percent of the money that's left over after required distributions. So there were a lot of incentives put in the bill to curry favor with some of the lawmakers.

All right, so what are those giveaways? How is, let's just say, UNC Asheville going to benefit from this? Well, they would get $300,000 right off the top of gambling revenue and then once all the required distributions are given out, which you know, five or six million dollars in required distributions including, you know, two million to a problem gambling helpline and all that stuff, then of all the money that's left, those 10 schools would split 20 percent of all the money that's left. So if there's 20 million dollars left, you know, I hate to do math on the air, a percentage of that. If there's a hundred million dollars left and they would split 20 million dollars among those 10 schools, I can do that math. That's two million dollars a school.

That seems good. This also seems kind of odd for this industry versus any other industry. Why did we have to do this? Well, that, I mean, that had less to do with the industry and more to do with votes. I mean, well, I understand that. It's to get these people to agree, but why can't we just agree that this is like any other, I'll just, I mean, I hate to use the term vice, but it's like any other legal vice that should be legal. It's like alcohol or, I mean, I mean, I'm not advocating for tobacco use, but tobacco.

I mean, why is it any different? Yeah, I just think the morality has played into it. I think, I think some of the lawmakers who voted against this would just as soon get rid of those vices as well in the state, including the lottery, including the lottery. Including alcohol?

I don't know about alcohol, but certainly some of the people who voted against it, I think would prefer to get rid of alcohol as well. And then, you know, there's a lot of talk about the problems that may come with gambling, about the increase in problem gambling in some of the other states. A lot of talk about the incessant advertising and what that's going to do to children and how they watch sports or perceive sports. Those may be overblown. They may be understated in some ways, but I think there was an undercurrent of that.

And that's why they needed to do things like include all these UNC system schools in the revenue distribution in order to secure some of those votes. Worrying about the advertising and the impact on kids. I mean, are just, well, okay. I worry about, I mean, I hate to call it a nanny state. I worry about that. I worry about trying to protect everybody from every little thing on earth. And we're not doing that. Meanwhile, we should be protecting people from other things, but that ain't even an option.

I'm not even going to get into it. What is our timeframe for this? Getting through both chambers, getting to governor Cooper's desk, getting signed and getting implemented.

And what are the obstacles now? Yeah, I mean, certainly the Senate and Cooper, none of that timing actually matters because the effective date of the bill is January 8th, which I think is the date of the national championship game in college football. I think we'll see the Senate move on it relatively quickly in the next week or two. And then governor Cooper has indicated he would sign it.

But even if it passes tomorrow, the effective date on the bill is January 8th. So we have this long ramp up to win sports gambling would be legal. And I think a lot of that time is going to be there are 10 to 12 operators that have to apply for licenses through the lottery commission. And so that process will have to play out. The lottery commission will have to put up rules and regulations about sports gambling. They'll have to approve or die applications from DraftKings, FanDuel, all the like. And then I would imagine sometime in December, as the licenses start to get approved, we will see some of that advertising that we talked about really starting to come to North Carolina with incentives for people to sign up, sign up for these apps. Can't wait. It will certainly benefit us here on sports radio.

Brian Murphy, WRAL sports investigative reporter at Murfsturf on Twitter. You may not even know the answer to this, but today is March 29th. If the bill was signed by the governor on April 2nd, whatever it is, I'm not sure he's working on Saturday, but if it was signed on April 2nd, what would stop it from being? I mean, is it just they have decided that the start date is January 8th or does it have to wait until January 8th?

Why can't we start it August 8th? Yeah, there's no reason other than the date in the bill is January 8th. I think the lottery commission has asked for some time because they have to run background checks. They have to do a lot of stuff when these applications come in.

It's going to take time. The bill was going to start on January 1st, but my understanding is the lottery commission asked that it not start on a holiday. But, you know, bills can start effective immediately upon passage. You mentioned obliquely made a reference to the gun bill. There was a veto override. And Alamance County has already said they will stop dealing with pistol permits. So that's within hours of a bill passing. So it is possible for these things to take effect very quickly.

But in this case, there has to be a regulatory state or regulatory apparatus kind of put into place to deal with sports gambling. Wait, I mean, January is not that far away. January is not that far away. Here's where here's why it is.

The NFL season starts the week after Labor Day, the college football season. People want to be able to do this. And here's the thing. They're doing it anyway. They're doing it.

Why are we not just it's the most maddening thing in the world to me. I don't gamble on sports. We talk about it every day. I pay attention to lines.

I pay attention to all that stuff. We I don't do it. It doesn't increase the enjoyment for me.

But I know too many people who it does. And those people should be allowed to do it. And that really is the argument. That really is the argument that the proponents of the bill made. And and in the end, one out that like this is happening. North Carolina is not getting its share of the revenue.

North Carolina pro teams are not getting their share of marketing deals and other arrangements. So we need to do this. And in the end, that argument won out in the House. And I suspect it will win out in the Senate as well. So Tom Dundon, who wants to open up a sports book at PNC Arena, he can he can he can build it, but it can't it can't operate until January 8.

That's correct. Even though it might be operable, although we have an elevator that's still out. Actually, it's still out.

We have we we can build it and we can get it ready. But it just kind of is going to sit there gathering dust until January 8. Again, makes no sense giving revenue away that we could get. I mean, I'm not saying we should have it tomorrow. I actually am.

But I recognize that it permits and whatnot, even though these are reputable companies, if we if we stayed with the big ones. Anyway, that's I'm not yelling at you. You understand that even though I called you by the wrong name earlier.

But that's just me. Brian Murphy, you're the man. Appreciate your time.

Enjoy. We didn't even have time to talk NIL. But next time or PNC Arena, it's going to be called PNC Arena for a few more years. So we don't have to get used to a new name. Well, isn't that good?

Because I would call it. But look, I called it the entertainment and sports arena at one point and then it was the RBC Center and then PNC bought RBC. So same thing. Yeah, they they signed or they've agreed to an extension finally after the last agreement ended in August. So they finally agreed.

And now you won't be calling it PNC when it's some other acronym that we hadn't heard of. How long is the agreement? The agreement is seven years. The naming rights portion is only two.

But my understanding is, is it's basically seven as well. OK, Brian Murphy. And you'll see you'll see more PNC signage around the building there. They're going to sponsor this champions club as well. Are we are we concerned at how that advertising impacts kids? I don't think we're concerned about how bank advertising impacts.

I would be more so than gambling. Brian Murphy at Murfsturf on Twitter, WRAL sports investigative reporter. Thanks, man. All right.

Thanks. It occurs to me, I just put Brian in so many bad situations. I know, but he rolled with it. It's just it's just not fair. My general disdain and part of it, I will admit this as we go to break and we're going to have to talk about the commissioner of the NFL in another segment. My general disdain for the way our politicians deal with issues like this, where they clearly and this is not all. It's only about 95 percent of them don't have an understanding, real understanding of the issues. There's an NIL hearing on Capitol Hill today. And if you listen to I mean, I'm not saying every single representative that spoke had no clue, but the quotes that I'm reading. You guys, they just don't have a general grasp of the issue. Yeah. And and they're also not interested in doing anything about it. Well, that doesn't help either. Yeah. So I'm already in that mood.