North Carolina Legalizes Sports Betting – What Other US States Will Follow Suit Next?

The list of US states to legalize sports betting is continuing to grow, with North Carolina being the latest to join in on the fun.

It seems like sports betting is taking over the country, which has many wondering which states will be the next to legalize it.

There are many reasons why this is happening. First and foremost, many believe they should be able to spend their money the way they want in this free country.

Yes, there are glaring issues around the practice, highlighted by addiction, but it seems as if the large profits have changed the minds of our governing bodies.

Let’s take a look at the list of states to legalize sports betting next.

Here’s a list of states to legalize sports betting soon. Keep in mind that nothing is guaranteed, and there are still plenty of hoops for them to jump through before anything happens.

This list is also anything but solidified, as more states could join in or drop out at any moment.

For the most part, though, these states have recently voted to relax their sports betting laws, indicating that they could be fully legal in the near future. Technically, you are able to bet on sports within these states, but you can only do so at a retail casino.

This isn’t exactly what we want, but we will take what we can get. The next big step for these states is to make sports betting completely legal, whether it’s online or in-person.

As charming as the drive to the casino is, I’m sure most would prefer to be able to place their bets whenever and wherever they’d like.

The current laws and recent changes imply that these states could fully legalize sports betting sooner rather than later. It’s important to be ready for when that happens, and you can do that by researching the best sports betting sites.

As I mentioned earlier, North Carolina is the most recent state to legalize online sports betting.

Governor Roy Cooper signed Bill 347 into law, making it legal and safer to bet on sports in the state of North Carolina.

He expressed his concerns over there already being illegal sports gambling, and the bill would help provide regulations and open channels for those struggling with addiction.

The bill will be put into place in June of 2024. North Carolina will benefit from the taxes generated by sports betting, as operators will have to pay 18% of their gross revenue.

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It’s difficult to predict which state will be next to legalize sports betting after North Carolina. We don’t know when or if the bills will be passed, signed, then put into law.

The whole process takes a long time, but there are some states that shouldn’t be too far behind North Carolina.

One of which is awfully close by. In fact, they are in the same Carolina family. South Carolina also has the gambling fever and has proposed bills in consecutive years for sports betting.

This doesn’t guarantee they are next, but these recent proposals display clear motivation.

We can’t say which Carolina is the best until we find out where they both stand on the issue. As of right now, however, North Carolina seems to have the upper hand.

Wisconsinites should be excited about the change in perception of sports betting across the country. They, too, could join the party soon despite the current laws preventing them from betting on in-state college sports and player props.

Sports betting is legal at in-person casinos, which is the case for all of these states on the list.

However, one thing that makes Wisconsin slightly different from the following states is that you can also use a mobile app to place your wagers.

There is a catch, which is that you can only use the mobile betting app while at Oneida Nation’s locations. So, it’s mobile, but not that mobile.

The good news is that Wisconsin could take the next step sooner rather than later and legalize mobile sports betting, no matter where you are in the state.

Up next, we have the Cornhusker State, more commonly known as Nebraska.

Sports betting was legalized on May 25th, 2021, which is now almost three years ago. Other states have been a little more active recently, so it’s hard to predict where Nebraska is at right now.

With their current laws, you can only bet on sports at an in-person casino. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to be on in-state college games or player prop bets.

That said, the legalization of sports betting wasn’t too long ago in the grand scheme of things. Maybe that means they are closer to fully legalizing online sports betting in Nebraska than we think.

State laws can be very confusing, especially when it comes to the sports betting market. New Mexico isn’t making things any easier on us by not having clear laws about the topic.

Sports betting isn’t fully illegal in the state, but you can’t say that it’s legal either.

The Pueblo of Santa Ana tribe opened a sportsbook in their casino, so it seems to be closer to legal than illegal.

There are four other tribal casinos that you can bet on sports at, but we don’t have a real money online casino in New Mexico at our disposal.

It’s extremely difficult to make a prediction for when that will change for the state, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they join North Carolina in the coming months.

Sometimes, you have to go north to go south. In our case, we head from New Mexico to South Dakota.

South Dakota is in a similar boat to New Mexico in the way that they also legalized sports bets in 2021.

They started taking bets in September, but you can only do so in four in-person casinos. These include tribal casinos and the ones in Deadwood.

You also can’t bet on player prop bets, which is a bummer. However, the somewhat recent law changes suggest that South Dakota could be one of the states to legalize online sports betting in the near future.

Yet another state that legalized sports gambling at tribal casinos in 2020 is Washington.

They took a while to get going, too, but that’s not exactly a huge surprise. The first bet taken in a sportsbook didn’t happen until September of 2021.

Like New Mexico, South Dakota, and others, you can’t bet on college games or player prop bets within the state of Washington.

What does the future hold for The Evergreen State? It’s hard to tell, but again, the current laws indicate that another change could be made in the future.

Will there be other states to legalize sports betting in the near future? It’s entirely possible, especially since the perception around sports betting and gambling in general has changed over the last few years.

That said, it’s incredibly difficult to predict exactly which states will join North Carolina and the other states that have fully legalized sports betting.

Changing the state legislature can take months or even years, so it’s important to remain patient during the process.

Some other states that could change their laws soon include Minnesota, Missouri, Georgia, and North Dakota. However, it’s more likely that we see this happen in 2025 or later rather than in 2024.

There will be a lot of first-time sports bettors once the laws are changed. It’s important that the newbies know how to compare sportsbooks once they are at their disposal.

One way to do that is to compare the welcome bonuses at the best sports betting sites.

Footnotes:

• The North Carolina General Assembly provided information on Bill 347.