Up to four new NC casinos could be included in proposal GOP leaders are working on
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North Carolina’s casino debate
State legislators are considering expanding state-sanctioned gambling in North Carolina. That could include adding new casinos on nontribal lands as well as legalizing and regulating video lottery terminals. The debate has stalled budget discussions. Here is coverage from The News & Observer about the issue.
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North Carolina could open up to four new casinos, three of them on nontribal lands, under a proposal that House and Senate GOP lawmakers are discussing, Republican leaders said Thursday.
As talks on gambling between Republicans in both chambers continue, both House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger said that at least three new casinos could be authorized in Anson, Nash and Rockingham counties. A fourth casino could be authorized for the Lumbee Indian tribe to operate in Eastern North Carolina, they said.
The Lumbee don’t have full federal recognition from Congress — something North Carolina U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd are seeking to address with legislation they introduced earlier this year — but Moore said he doesn’t believe the tribe would need any federal legislation to be able to operate a casino of their own under the proposal state lawmakers are considering, since “it’s entirely a state licensure agreement.”
The proposal, which would allow the casinos to be built as part of so-called entertainment districts that would include hotels and other commercial developments, would likely also give the green light to state-licensed video gambling machines, Moore said.
The effort by Republican lawmakers to reach an agreement on new gambling legislation before the end of this year’s session, which was originally slated to wrap up by the end of June before being extended into the summer due to budget negotiations that also remain ongoing, comes as more casinos open across the state line in Virginia.
In particular, GOP lawmakers have cited the new Caesars casino resort opening next year in Danville, just an hour-and-a-half northwest of Raleigh, as a reason to consider allowing casinos in North Carolina, where the only casinos currently allowed to operate are on tribal lands in the western part of the state.
But while the top-line provisions of the proposal seem to be the same in both chambers, the two GOP leaders had different updates to share on Thursday regarding the status of talks between the House and Senate.
Moore said that the House received a “draft” of the gambling bill from the Senate on Wednesday that had been shared with House Republican leaders to get their feedback.
He said there’s been a “decent amount” of support for the “Senate-backed” proposal within the House GOP Caucus, and said he felt “it was very important that members start seeing actual legislation, because so far, a lot of this has been talked about conceptually,” adding that he hoped to share the draft with the rest of the caucus “in a matter of days.”
Berger, on the other hand, told reporters that while there have been “drafts of various parts that have been shared,” there isn’t a full bill. He also said that there hasn’t been a “Senate proposal,” and that instead, lawmakers in both chambers have held discussions with each other.
“I believe that goes back and forth,” Berger said. “The House has presented some concepts, the Senate has presented some concepts.”
This story was originally published July 20, 2023 at 12:50 PM with the headline "Up to four new NC casinos could be included in proposal GOP leaders are working on."
