North Carolina Effort To Ban College Player Prop Bets ‘Dead,' Senator Says

A bill at the North Carolina state Senate to ban college player proposition betting is “dead” this year, but the fight is not over, says a state lawmaker.

Sen. Julie Mayfield, D-Buncombe County, told Gambling.com this week her bill to prohibit these prop bets won’t make it out of the Legislature in 2024. She said she’ll try again next year.

Harassment Of Athletes Raises Concern

Earlier this year, Mayfield and state Rep. Marcia Morey, D-Durham, introduced matching bills to prohibit college player prop bets statewide. In North Carolina, sports betting is legal in person at casinos and on mobile platforms like cellphones. It is one of 38 states with legal sports betting.

Player prop bets allow people to wager on an athlete’s individual performance, such as the over/under on how many passes a receiver might catch in a football game.

The two lawmakers said one problem with player prop wagers is that bettors harass athletes.

Both also said the legislative appetite to ban these bets has not been strong. During earlier video interviews on Gambling.com’s “The Edge,” Mayfield and Morey said they doubted their colleague would vote to ban college player prop bets this year.

The 2024 legislative session ended in June, but, as the Associated Press reported, the General Assembly has agreed to reconvene in Raleigh “for occasional short sessions for the rest of the year, mainly to address veto overrides or emergencies.” During these sessions, lawmakers still can consider “larger matters,” the AP reported.

However, Mayfield said the effort to ban college player prop bets statewide in 2024 is over.

“The bill is dead,” she said in an email. “We did not see any bills on sports betting this year, which I thought we might.  But I'm sure it will be back next year, and I'll try again.  The stories of athlete harassment are only going to increase.”

Going forward, lawmakers can't introduce bills again until next January, she said.

States With Bans

The issue of college player prop bets recently took center stage when NCAA President Charlie Baker asked states to ban them. He said those bets could undermine the integrity of competition and lead to athletes being harassed by sports bettors.

According to journalist Steve Ruddock in his “Straight to the Point” Substack, the following states banned college player prop bets even before the NCAA’s request:

• Arizona
• Colorado
• Massachusetts
• Oregon
• New York
• Pennsylvania
• Tennessee
• Virginia
• West Virginia

After the NCAA’s call to ban college player prop betting, these states took action:

• Ohio
• Maryland
• Vermont
• Louisiana (goes into effect on Aug. 1, 2024)

As Ruddock notes, four states have some restrictions on college player prop bets:

• Iowa – allowed for out-of-state schools
• Illinois – allowed for out-of-state schools
• Rhode Island – allowed for out-of-state schools
• Indiana – prohibited for live player props

‘Sunlight Is The Best Disinfectant”

One state that hasn’t banned the bets is Arkansas.

Carlton Saffa, chief market officer at Saracen Casino Resort in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, said on a recent episode of “The Edge” that college player prop bets should be monitored but not banned.

A ban drives bettors to unregulated sites offshore, he said.

“There’s an old saying that sunlight is the best disinfectant,” Saffa said. “If you want to know what’s going on with something, you don’t ban it. You regulate it."