Online casino expansion is a good bet for North Carolina | Opinion
2023 has been the year of gaming in North Carolina, and it’s no wonder why. As the legislature considers a wide range of gaming options, including brick-and-mortar casinos, I’ve encouraged my colleagues to look toward the industry’s future: iGaming.
In recent years, an increasing number of states have authorized iGaming, which allows eligible adults to enjoy online the same games they can currently play in a casino, including poker and slots.
iGaming is the next evolution of digital entertainment and works in tandem with online sports betting to offer an immersive and interactive gaming experience.
Permitting iGaming would ensure North Carolina maximizes tax revenue now and into the future, regulate and make safe a thriving illegal market, and complement traditional brick-and-mortar casinos.
My fellow lawmakers continue to debate what gaming expansion looks like, but limiting this discussion to just brick-and-mortar casinos is a lot like building new movie theaters without allowing people to stream movies on their mobile devices.
As Steve Ruddock, Editor in Chief of Gaming Law Review, wrote last month, “The modernization of gambling should be one of the pillars of legalization as it protects the industry’s revenue and the state’s.”
Industry experts project that full iGaming would yield nearly $300 million annually for the state – creating a new, reliable revenue stream that broadens the tax base and aligns with the smart fiscal policy the General Assembly has worked diligently to maintain.
What’s more, the state would realize iGaming’s tax revenue almost immediately, as opposed to waiting several years for brick-and-mortar casinos to open.
In addition to the benefit of “flipping the switch,” the online sports betting model adopted in 2023 has a lot in common with iGaming. That means appropriate consumer protections are already being put in place, along with trusted providers that have gone through a rigorous licensing process in states across the nation. Additionally, tax dollars from iGaming could be used to expand the responsible gaming programming instituted under online sports betting legislation.
As lawmakers, we each take an oath to work to protect our fellow citizens. Stamping out a thriving black market and offering consumers a safe, well-regulated way to entertain themselves should be a no-brainer.
Anybody with a smartphone – at any age – can visit a foreign website and place bets on digital table games like poker or blackjack, digital slot machines, and the like. These foreign providers are entirely unregulated. Their trade practices are a free-for-all, and scams and identity theft are all too common.
The American Gaming Association estimates that North Carolinians spend $430 million per year in illegal iGaming. Authorizing full iGaming would effectively gut this illegal market, as customers will gravitate towards legal, safe, and well-regulated domestic options.
Some might naturally assume that online casino gaming cuts into the market share of brick-and-mortar casinos. But repeated analyses and data from other states show iGaming complements, rather than cannibalizes, physical casinos. Why? Because physical casinos and iGaming attract different audiences, and the crossover effect creates a certain symbiosis.
For example, the Indiana Gaming Commission conducted a study last year analyzing revenue data from six states with both full iGaming and brick-and-mortar casinos. The study authors concluded: “[We] do not expect iGaming to negatively impact Indiana casino revenues. The addition of iGaming without live-dealer gaming has no meaningful impact on direct casino employment – but it would create additional jobs in iGaming operations.”
It’s clear that the time has come to make a generational change in state policy, but we have to be holding all the cards when we go all in on gaming expansion, not rolling the dice by picking winners and losers.