Any news on the NC Gambling bill yet?

The gambling bill. It's not a gambling bill anymore, is it? The sports wagering in North Carolina has been, like, stuffed somewhere.

Talk to me. Yeah, well, it may get tied up in the Senate budget that comes out next week. It's still possible that the House-passed version, you know, could stand alone and move through the Senate like any normal bill, or it could all get tied up in the budget.

They raced last week to get all these bills passed so that they'd be eligible to be taken up by the other chamber, and then this week they've basically taken the week off. So next week, the important thing is the Senate is going to release its budget. It's possible that casinos and video lottery terminals will be in that budget as well.

Alright, so here's my question. What does the ability for North Carolina citizens to wager on sports have to do with the budget? Well, a lot of stuff gets stuffed in the budget for policy reasons and other reasons. You can make a legitimate argument that this is going to contribute money to the budget and thus does fit in the budget bill much more than some other things that are going to get stuffed in the budget bill. And it's not 100% clear that sports gambling will get put in the budget bill, just that it's a possibility and it's something that's been discussed by lawmakers over there at the Capitol.

Here's the way my brain works. If they do this, it is clear that they are daring the chief caniac of the state of North Carolina, the Governor Roy Cooper, who was tweeting about the gains last night hysterically. But they're basically daring him to nix sports wagering if he doesn't like the budget bill. Should they have a supermajority anyway?

Right. Republican lawmakers hold a lot of leverage over the budget process, in part because Medicaid expansion, which is far more important than maybe even the hurricanes to Governor Cooper, is contingent upon the budget passing. Which is a neat trick that lawmakers were able to get put into the Medicaid bill. So that means that the budget has to pass in order for Medicaid expansion to pass, which means they have an enormous amount of leverage over what gets in that budget bill. And as you mentioned, they already have a supermajority. There are some Democrats that have been going along with several of these Republican bills already. So I don't think getting it passed is the problem.

And then you run into time issues a little bit, right? It's easier to put it all in the budget because it's one vote, one process gets passed, than it is to have lots and lots of separate bills that have to go through the entire process. Brian Murphy is joining us, WRAL's sports investigative reporter. This has been going on for now, not the budget situation. That goes on every year. But the sports wagering bill went back, go back to last year when it was basically defeated by one vote.

And we're still waiting. We won't get it even until about the Super Bowl time, even if this does pass. And last year they made some like 11th hour amendments to kind of remove college sports from the equation. So in light of news of the day, if you will, with the Alabama baseball coach getting fired because of potential criminal activity with gambling regarding him, 26 University of Iowa athletes are under investigation for their involvement in gambling on college sports. What are the chances that that has an impact on the way the sports gambling bill looks here?

Yeah, I think it's super interesting. I mean, apparently the NCAA rules are that you can't gamble on anything. And so the Alabama situation is different that may have involved his own team. The Iowa and Iowa State situation seems like it was just gambling happening by college athletes, which is a no-no. I do think that it's going to come up now. I think supporters of gambling will say, look, these are only being caught because we have regulated gambling.

Right. In the past, the Alabama coach could have made these bets with a bookie. No one would have known about it.

He'd have gotten away with it. On the other hand, I think critics will say, look, the proliferation of legal sports gambling is just it's too tempting at this point to college athletes who are unable to resist. And you are putting it in front of them on a day in and day out basis. And of course, we're going to have issues like this. I'm not sure either side is completely wrong on that. And so I do think it will come up in debate over this bill. I don't think it will necessarily change this bill. Now, some states like Virginia don't allow you to bet on Virginia college sports.

Right. It's possible that that could be seen as some sort of compromise and you'd be able to bet on college sports. You just wouldn't be able to bet on North Carolina teams. I know supporters of the bill would be opposed to that. Well, I mean, I know for a while, I don't know if it's still the case, but you couldn't bet on Nevada athletics at the sports books in Vegas. They wouldn't have they wouldn't allow a UNLV game or a Nevada Reno basketball game or a football game. They wouldn't allow those on. You know, you couldn't you couldn't place a bet on those in the casinos back then.

But I think now that you can. But ultimately, if because I think you're right with the point you raised because I brought it up yesterday. Making sports wagering legal makes it easier for people to do it right.

You don't have to know a guy like I don't know a guy if I want. I'm not a I'm not a gambler. We do a gambling segment every day, but I'm not a gambler. I enjoy pretending to gamble. That's my favorite way to do it. Otherwise, I'd lose everything.

But but I so I enjoy it. But if even if I wanted to, I don't know a guy or a way to go about doing it. So that's the barrier for me. It prevents me from doing it if I was really interested in placing a bet. But now that it becomes easier to do so, I still don't understand what taking college games off the board would do, because they could bet on anything.

They could bet on tennis. Right. I mean, so I understand that part. I just wouldn't I just don't understand what not betting on colleges would do.

Yeah. I mean, just cross over the line. I mean, the Alabama LSU situation, the baseball situation took place in Ohio. So having a rule in place in Alabama or Louisiana wouldn't have wouldn't have solved that problem.

I just think it's it is a fascinating issue at this point. There's a casino about to open next week in Danville, Virginia. I mean, which is a short drive from Raleigh. I mean, the proliferation of sports gambling and gambling in general is is going to continue unabated. And it's just a matter of whether or not North Carolina gets in on that game at this point.

Brian Murphy. I mean, I guess it would just be up to I mean, colleges governing bodies to super educate. Right. Well, and there's a question about whether, you know, you know, should college athletes be able to place a bet on an NFL game? Yes.

You know, absolutely. They should. I mean, can you put can the NCAA put in rules that clearly you can't bet on your own team?

Right. Clearly, you shouldn't be betting on maybe college sports or or any, you know, the school that you're at. But should you be able to place a bet on the Kentucky Derby without getting suspended by the NCAA or by your conference? I mean, maybe maybe the NCAA needs to look at changing its rules, although it's certainly a lot easier to say don't bet at all than it is to say, well, you can bet on this. But you can't bet on that, which is the NFL rule. The NFL allows you to bet on whatever you want. You just can't bet on the NFL. That's what got Calvin Ridley.

Right. You can't bet on the NFL and you can't do it. You can't do anything from team from the team facility, which is what happened to what? Three members of the Detroit Lions because they were doing it, you know, in the locker room or wherever, hanging out in the cold tub, placing bets on Bet MGM. And all of a sudden, Kevin Durant and Kevin Garnett walks in and there's Jamie Foxx. And now all of a sudden we got three guys who are out for six weeks.

I don't know. I made up the league is certainly taking lots and lots of money from all these gambling entities. And it's right there on your phone. And you probably spend more time at the facility than anywhere.

These bright lines, I think there are no bright lines anymore. And that's the problem, I think, when it comes to some of these leaks. That's why the mindset of just don't allow it. I'm not saying has merit, but it's and I disagree with the don't allow any of these things. There's an NIL issue we're going to get into later on today as well.

But it's it's it is creating a headache in a lot of different ways. I appreciate your time. Brian Murphy at Murf's turf on Twitter.

WRL sports investigative reporter. Talk to you later. Thanks. All right.

Again, I'm not I'm not I'm very pro. You should be allowed to wager on sports. There is a responsibility. That when you become an adult and you can do these things, there is a responsibility. That you have to keep. And maybe that's on the schools to really hammer home the educational part of this.