Kentucky Derby will go on, again, without legal betting in North Carolina

(The Center Square) – All primed and ready for horse racing’s Triple Crown? And ready to place your bets?

Not in North Carolina, no matter the sportsbook bettors hooked up to when sports wagering became legal in the state on March 11, 2024.

Sports Wagering/Horse Racing Wagering, as the 2023-24 legislative session’s House Bill 347 was also known, in part says it “does not authorize non-pari-mutuel wagering on the outcome of live, simulcast, or any other horse races.”

That makes Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, the start of the famed Triple Crown over the next six weekends, just another race when it comes to the state law. Even if everyone in the Bluegrass State will say otherwise.

Two years after sports wagering became legal in the state, work continues to add pari-mutuel horse race wagering.

Through March, according to the North Carolina Lottery Commission reports, legal sports wagering even without the ponies is good for better than $367,000 a day to state ...