NC Family Staff | July 10, 2019 | SHARE: 
The N.C. House is preparing to vote on a bill that would authorize betting on professional and collegiate sporting events and wagering on horse racing on tribal lands of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in Western North Carolina. Earlier this afternoon, the House Rules Committee approved SB 154–Allow Sports/Horse Race Wagering Tribal Lands. This was the bill’s last committee stop before a vote on the House floor, and WE NEED YOUR HELP!
SB 154 passed the NC Senate in early April, and NC Family informed you of our tireless efforts to stand against this bill, because it would exacerbate a myriad of economic and social consequences related to increased incidents of problem and pathological gambling. NC Family President John L. Rustin testified against SB 154 on four different occasions as the bill moved through committees in the State Senate and House.
“While SB 154 may seem like an isolated and limited expansion of gambling in North Carolina, this bill is likely to have much more far reaching consequences for citizens in our state and beyond,” Rustin told state lawmakers. “Sports gambling is particularly corruptive and addicting, and authorizing these additional forms of gambling on the Cherokee reservation will give current gamblers even more ways to gamble and it will also attract additional new gamblers to the tribal casinos. Both will inevitably result in higher incidents of problem and pathological gambling, and these gambling problems will not stay at the casinos, but will follow these gamblers home to North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and other surrounding states.”
Rustin also informed legislators that, “Decades of gambling research clearly demonstrates the devastating effects gambling addiction has on individuals, families and communities, including: crime, theft, embezzlement, personal bankruptcy, domestic violence, child abuse, divorce, and even suicide.”
In April, NC Family urged you to help us by contacting your State Senators through our Action Alert. Now, we need you to contact your State House member as soon as possible! Please visit the NC Family Action Center NOW and click the “Oppose Sports Betting and Horse Racing on Tribal Lands” alert to urge your House member to OPPOSE SB 154!
We appreciate your continued support as we fight to protect North Carolina families, individuals, and communities from the dangers of predatory gambling!
