South Carolina Casinos Online — Are They Permitted?

Best South Carolina Gambling Sites

• Red Dog Casino  – Best Gambling Site for South Carolinians
• Slots.lv  – Best South Carolina Slots Casino
• BetUS  – Best Sports Betting Site for SC
• Bovada  – Best Poker Site for South Carolina
• BC.Game  – Best Site for Bonuses in South Carolina
• SlotsandCasino  – Best Crypto Site for South Carolinians
• Everygame  – Best South Carolina Mobile Gambling Site
• Ignition Casino  – Best Live Dealer Site for South Carolinians

South Carolina Gambling Sites Compared

How We Choose the Best Gambling Sites for South Carolinians

We don’t just pick an arbitrary rating when we vet an online gambling operation. Our B.E.S.T. scoring system is how we rank each site to arrive at a rating reflecting the site’s commitment to serving its South Carolina patrons well.

The system takes many characteristics into consideration:

Bonuses

Entertainment

Safety

Transactions

• Bonuses — Most South Carolina gamblers like to know that a site wants their patronage enough to reward them with bonuses. First among these is the site’s welcome bonus, but others are equally important. We also look for reload, referral, and loyalty bonuses before we assign a specific score in this category.
• Entertainment Features — We look at everything about the site for this, from the simplicity and appeal of its user interface to the speed in which various games load and play. We expect online sportsbooks to offer a wide range of sports betting options, and online casinos need to show us a sizeable inventory full of diverse, high-quality games.
• Safety and Security — This category requires us to closely inspect the technical components the site employs to keep your financial and personal information secure. We look at the site’s data security, ensuring that the site uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) for data encryption, and assess their privacy policy.
• Transactions — In addition to a separate check on data security here to ensure the site adheres to banking-level encryption, we also grade the site on the variety of its deposit and withdrawal methods. We score the site on the speed in which it completes withdrawal requests, as well as if there are any limits or fees.

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Is Gambling Legal in South Carolina?

No, gambling is not legal in South Carolina. For the last 250 years, South Carolina has been resolutely against gambling in any form.

Yes, bingo and raffles run by charitable institutions such as churches and various civic groups has been permitted (within very stringent limits), but poker, horse racing, roulette, craps, bets on sporting events—any wagering games you could play anywhere within the physical confines of South Carolina’s borders—have all been prohibited.

Along with its 1788 Constitution, South Carolina created a Code of Laws that included an entire chapter iterating “Gambling and Lottery” offenses(1). Among the many prohibited games were faro-bank, roley-poley, and Even-Odd—perhaps not well-known today, but a scourge in colonial times.

Even though lotteries were a regular part of colonial life (cities often used lotteries to finance building projects such as bridges and roads), many of the original 13 colonies established laws against lotteries and gambling as they codified laws to join the Union.

South Carolina was not the first or last of the new states to eschew lotteries and gambling. It was, however, the most stringent, with a complete prohibition of all gambling and lotteries. For most of its 250 years as a state, South Carolina has steadfastly refused to permit gambling within its borders. It has, in fact, barely changed its anti-gambling laws during its two-and-a-half centuries of statehood.

Fortunately for South Carolinians, those 250-year-old laws knew nothing about the Internet Age. Our research indicates that there are no laws on the books in South Carolina specifically prohibiting online casinos.

There are, however, laws about wagering or otherwise participating in games of chance in South Carolina. Although most gambling prosecutions of in SC involve those hosting or organizing games rather than those placing wagers. Consequently, we recommend that if you want to gamble while in the Palmetto State, it’s best that you consult a local attorney to review your options.

Some might point out that South Carolina does permit casino cruises, but in fact, the state only permits ships to pick-up and deliver gamblers in Myrtle Beach. No gambling takes place on the ship until it has left port and crossed into international waters three miles out to sea.

And yes, through some chicanery and manipulation of legalese, one section of the anti-gambling laws was altered enough to permit a certain type of gambling. Thus, the state endured the scourge of video poker for 13 years. In 1999, however, the state managed to close the surprise loophole.

During its brief tenure in South Carolina, more than 4,000 video poker rooms containing an estimated 34,000 video poker machines freckled the state, and the industry was reported to have generated more than $2.8 billion in annual revenue.

Land-Based Gambling Options in South Carolina

With the exception of bingo, charitable raffles, and casino cruises, little opportunity exists in South Carolina to place a wager. Let’s review the options:

Casino Cruise

There is a single casino cruise company in operation in South Carolina: The Big “M” Casino operates two luxury cruise ships ported in Little River (near Myrtle Beach). Each of the ships can take up to 450 passengers three miles out to sea, into international waters.

At the time of this writing, only one of the two ships was operating. Sailing schedule is every day but Monday. Tuesday through Sunday cruises run 11 AM to 4 PM, while an evening cruise (6 PM to 11 PM) runs Thursday through Sunday.

Bingo

State Education Lottery

The South Carolina State Education Lottery has thousands of retailers statewide selling lottery tickets, from multistate Powerball and MegaMillions to $1 scratch-offs. Whether you live in Charleston, Columbia, or Greenville, chances are you’re just a short walk away from a lottery retailer.

Timeline of Gambling Legislation in South Carolina

Future of South Carolina Gambling

As far as gambling is concerned, for two and a half centuries legislators of South Carolina have stood bravely against the winds of change; it’s unlikely this is going to change soon. Perhaps in concession to this obstinance, the state’s only federally-recognized Indian tribe, the Catawba Nation, ceased operation of its high-stakes bingo hall in 2017. Later, the tribe abandoned its efforts to open a casino within South Carolina’s borders and instead partnered with another tribe to open a casino about five miles into North Carolina.

Still, legislative efforts to drag South Carolina into the 21st century continue apace. Bills supporting the licensing of sportsbooks and horse racing parimutuel wagering in the state sit in various committees in the state house and senate—some languishing for years.

It’s enough to make a South Carolinian sigh and wearily repeat the state’s motto: dum spiro, spero. Some legal experts are uncertain of how invested the state of South Carolina is in forcing internet gaming into the framework of its gambling laws. At this point, the state has made no law governing internet gambling. Still, we’re not attorneys; we simply report the conditions out there. Currently, the state’s code of laws makes no mention of prohibiting internet casinos from accepting patrons from South Carolina. If you are interested in gaming there, be sure to consult an attorney for your options.

Gambling Responsibly

South Carolina’s near-complete prohibition of gambling may be a tad more harsh than we’d like, but it clearly demonstrates the need for its citizens to ensure they are gambling responsibly.

As such, the state’s “Responsible Gambling” service can be found on the internet on the state’s Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services. The state doesn’t keep statistics on problem gambling, but Yale Medicine says that approximately 1% of all adult Americans are problem gamblers or are prone to gambling irresponsibly. With an adult population of 3,077,453, that would mean South Carolina is home to nearly 40,000 people in danger of becoming problem gamblers.

If you or anyone you know in South Carolina is having a problem with gambling, be sure to contact one of the following:

• Gambling Addiction Services, State of South Carolina
• Gamblers Anonymous
• South Carolina Resources, National Council on Problem Gambling

Legal Sources

1. “Gambling and Lotteries” Title 16, Chapter 19, South Carolina Code of Laws
2. “South Carolina Equine Advancement Act” H. 3514
3. HR 5277, South Carolina State House of Representative
4. Gambling Cruise Act South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 3, Chapter 11
5. “South Carolina High Court Derails Video Poker Games” New York Times
6. “Keeping unlawful gaming tables” Title 16, Chapter 19, Section 50, South Carolina Code of Laws

Gambling Online in South Carolina

With rather restrictive gambling laws in place in South Carolina, residents can enjoy land-based options like Bingo or the state lottery, but otherwise are forced to seek out reputable offshore gambling websites. The good news is there are plenty available within the state, with Red Dog Casino standing out as the best overall online gambling site available to South Carolina residents.

If you’re only looking for the best South Carolina online casino, Slots.lv takes the cake with their impressive combination of casino games and appealing bonuses. You may have preferences for other types of gambling, too, so knowing BetUS is the state’s best offshore sportsbook and Bovada is your top option for poker could also prove useful.

The options are borderline endless if you want to gamble online in South Carolina. Just make sure you fully understand the state’s laws and how they apply to you before choosing which site to gamble at online.

J.W.

Paine

Content Specialist

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J.W. Paine is one of the most experienced writers at GamblingSites.com. He’s written for television and the printed media, and is a published novelist (as Tom Elliott).

Paine loves writing about Las Vegas nearly as much he loves living here. An experienced gambler, he’s especially familiar with thoroughbred horseracing, poker, blackjack, and slots.

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