00:00We'll get to North Carolina now here. They have a low tax rate on sports betting as compared to some
00:05of the bigger states, New York, Illinois, et cetera. I see 18 percent is their betting tax rate. What do
00:12they want to raise it to, Pat? Is it significant?
00:15It's not terribly significant, I think, to your point. It's a very middling tax rate. It's not some of the
00:20lower ones like 10 percent or the like. But this is something we've seen in North Carolina before. Last year,
00:26the Senate came out and said, let's double it from 18 percent to 36 percent. They passed it. The House
00:32passed their budget with the 18 percent, and they didn't compromise on the two-year bill. So both chambers have
00:38had to come back and figure this out.
00:40And like I said at the beginning of the segment, states came into this session really trying to figure out
00:46how to make sure they can make up the deficit that they're going to have from the missing federal dollars.
00:52And here we are in North Carolina saying, let's do this.
00:56And both chambers apparently, reportedly, according to WRAL and North Carolina, have come to an agreement. The discussions had been
01:03between 20 and 30 percent. And so far, the reporting is suggesting on the lower end of that. So not
01:08probably just a few percentage points here and there.
01:12But still, that can be meaningful dollars to North Carolina, where a lot of the money ends up going to
01:18youth sports, 13 UNC system schools, not University of North Carolina itself, but, you know, its sister schools.
01:26And so it does sound like it's an agreement. It does sound like it's going to get bumped up a
01:29little bit.
01:30And it's interesting because, again, as I mentioned, a lot of sources said this was going to be a topic
01:34to watch of tax sources raises.
01:38And so far, this is really the only one with any real legs.
01:41And I think that is kind of because lawmakers are looking at prediction markets and sweepstakes casinos and still saying,
01:47hey, these guys are, you know, offering what they're offering, but not paying state license fees or taxes.
01:53So let's maybe take it easy on the people who are playing ball.
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