South Carolina Is Not Following Northern Neighbors On Betting At All

We have written at length that South Carolina is seeing what North Carolina does in betting and doing a 180-degree turn. But… it’s manifesting even more than we originally thought.

Not only is there no sports betting in South Carolina. They’ve remained one of 11 states without any sort of legalized betting market despite seeing North Carolina have runaway success. We thought the South would see the huge tax revenues the North is bringing in and follow suit, but that hasn’t happened.

However, this is probably more surprising. North Carolina has been eager to go after prediction markets and even licensed apps for not toeing their regulations. You’d think South Carolina would do the same, if not go harder, right?

Wrong. The South has done zilch to stop the rapid rise of Kalshi and Polymarket. Keep on reading, and we’ll compare just how different these two states are going about things despite sharing a name and border together.

North Carolina Is Protecting Its Industry At All Costs

It’s been a busy month for North Carolina betting regulators. They are swinging the hammer heavy and hard.

For one, regulators handed out $250,000 in fines to two sports betting apps — both of which are licensed, by the way — for breaking state rules. And get this, one of them doesn’t even operate there anymore.

Underdog got hit the hardest with a $175,000 penalty after admitting it failed to properly verify 38 underage accounts. Eight of those accounts actually placed bets, too. Underdog cooperated, reported the issue itself, and has already left the North Carolina market entirely (for different reasons). Didn’t matter, though, regulators wanted them to pay for the sins and they did.

The other fine was for the fast-rising Bet365. The sportsbook accidentally contacted customers who had already put themselves on self-exclusion lists after a technical issue caused those names not to be properly blocked. Bet365 reported the problem, fixed it, and added new safeguards. North Carolina still fined them $75,000 for the mishap.

They didn’t stop there, though. North Carolina also has its sights set on prediction markets. Regulators are considering banning commissioners from trading sports event contracts because they regularly see suspicious betting information and work closely with leagues. Notice the state isn’t trying to outright kill Kalshi or Polymarket like others. But… they’re trying to get ahead of possible issues of insider info — problems we’ve seen plague prediction markets.

All these moves tell you that North Carolina isn’t just happy that sports betting is legal and bringing in the state loads of money. More than that, it is actively protecting the market it built. This is exactly how things should be…

What Are South Carolina Lawmakers Doing?

Now let’s head a few miles south because this is where things start making even less sense.

South Carolina hasn’t resisted sports betting because the tax numbers don’t work. The resistance has always been much more fundamental than that. South Carolina has historically been one of the most gambling-averse states in the country, with lawmakers and Gov. Henry McMaster repeatedly pushing back on expansion over the social problems they believe come with it.

You can agree or disagree with that stance, but at least there’s a logic to it. But… that logic doesn’t seem to apply to prediction markets.

Kalshi, Polymarket, and others are fully accessible to South Carolinians, who can put money on the Gamecocks, Clemson, or any other sport. The state gets no tax money from it, by the way, and they have no say in how those platforms regulate themselves.

You’d think South Carolina’s lawmakers, who are so concerned about the ills of betting, would put a stop to it, right? Nope, they’ve been mum on it. Other state attorneys general banded together to go after prediction markets, but South Carolina didn’t get involved.

That’s the part we can’t wrap our heads around. If the state’s stance is that it doesn’t want expanded gambling because of the problems that come with it, wouldn’t prediction markets be exactly the kind of loophole you’d want to close?

Instead, South Carolina has gotten the worst of both worlds. It turned down the regulated sports betting industry and all the tax money that comes with it, but sports wagering-like products found their way into the state anyway. Womp womp womp.

South Carolinians Aren’t Turning A Blind Eye To Prediction Markets

When we say the state hasn’t done a thing, we’re talking about the elected officials. South Carolinians, however, are taking matters into their own hands.

Private lawsuits have started popping up inside the state against prediction markets, including one targeting DraftKings Predictions, Polymarket, Crypto dot com, and others. Another went after Kalshi, Robinhood, and Webull. No winners have been decided, but at least someone inside the state sees the hypocrisy. Each of these lawsuits is using South Carolina’s existing gambling laws to argue these contracts are just illegal betting with a different name.

So to recap, North Carolina built a betting market and is policing the hell out of it. South Carolina refused to build one because it doesn’t want more gambling, then watched prediction markets come in anyway, and has mostly done nothing about it. The contrast couldn’t be any bigger between the two neighbors. Make it make sense…