South Carolina debates the benefits of legal sports gambling

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WSPA) – Football season is back and while fans across the country are placing bets on their favorite teams, sports betting remains illegal in South Carolina.

Stephen Shapiro, a Sport and Entertainment Management Professor at USC, said when a state legalizes sports gambling, they generally see a boost in tax revenue.

“There’s been significant interest and participation in sport gambling when it becomes legalized in states, and because of that, a lot of people participating,” Shapiro said. “A lot of revenue has been generated and that can benefit in a lot of ways, depending on how the state decides to use it.”

There has been several pieces of legislation that have been discussed in the statehouse. Representative Todd Rutherford (D – Richland), House Minority Leader Representative, is a co-sponsor of the bi-partisan sports gambling bill.

If passed, anyone 18 years or older could place sports bets online in South Carolina.

“We have talked about this bill ad nauseum, and this bill is about freedom … The fact that South Carolina has some of the best sports teams in the entire country and we’re unable to place bets on our phone, is absolutely ridiculous,” Rutherford said.

McMaster has said for years that he is very much against sports gambling, and gambling in general.

“Gambling is bad for our culture. It’s not a part of our heritage and there are better ways to make money to give jobs to generate tax money,” he said.

“I don’t understand that line of thinking or that logic. This is simply about, again, giving people access to be able to do what they’re already doing,” Rutherford responded. “Everybody knows that people bet friendly wages, $1, $2, $50. I’m sure even the governor has seen it. The fact is that it’s simply illegal in South Carolina. We need to fix that.”

Shapiro believes sports gambling could be in the state’s future.

“My guess is going to be that most states, including South Carolina, will eventually legalize the activity. The difference might be that the restrictions that are set could be different, some of the early states had less restrictions on gambling …. Now newer states that are more recently legalizing it, are probably going to set up guardrails to maybe protect the consumer a little bit more,” he said.

North Carolina legalized sports gambling in 2024, but their law is a little different than South Carolina’s bill. Their law says you have to be 21 years old to place a bet.

For sports fans, it is not looking likely that McMaster will budge, and he is in office through the end of 2026.

If the bill goes through the statehouse, he can veto the bill. Lawmakers could still pass it by vetoing his decision and receiving two-thirds of the vote in both chambers.