North Carolina Showed Its Appetite for Sports Betting in 2025
The first full year of sports betting in North Carolina concluded in December 2025, and figures reported by the state’s lottery commission show that Tar Heel State residents have taken quickly to the newly-legal entertainment option.
North Carolina, the ninth-largest U.S. state with an estimated population of 11.2 million, produced $7.25 billion in mobile wagers last year. That led to the state's sportsbooks taking in a combined $734.5 million in gross gaming revenue.
Those numbers noticeably outpaced No. 10 Michigan (10.5 million population), which reported $5.41 billion in betting handle and $470 million in sportsbook revenue.
That said, the example of Ohio - which legalized sports betting at the start of 2023 - offers a sense of the industry's upside potential in North Carolina.
Ohio - seventh in population at 11.9 million residents - produced $10.3 billion in betting handle and a trace more than $1 billion in sportsbook revenue (one of only four states to do so).
New Jersey, 11th in population at 9.5 million, yielded an even more impressive $12 billion in wagers in 2025, with $1.18 billion retained by the sportsbooks. Part of that boost comes from "cross-pollination" by major gaming companies. That’s a perk of the state's legalization of online casino gaming in 2013, enabling the businesses to promote sports betting to its iGaming customers - and vice versa.
There does not yet appear to be any momentum from elected officials in North Carolina, however, for authorization of iGaming, which was offered in only seven states in 2025.
Sports betting milestones ahead in NC in 2026?
The dual state record highs in November 2025 of $814 million in betting handle and $92.9 million in sportsbook revenue - along with the fact that North Carolinians couldn't even place legal bets until March 2024 - hints that fall pro and college football season 2026 could possibly produce a month with $1 billion in handle and/or $100 million in sportsbook revenue.
The iconic college basketball state rivalry between Duke and the University of North Carolina no doubt helped fuel a betting handle in March ($685 million) that nearly edged out the football season month of September ($686.1 million).
But bettors enjoyed by far their best month during "March Madness," leaving the sportsbooks with a collective figure of only $38.1 million after paying out winning bets.
That produced quite an anomaly - March was North Carolina’s fifth-largest betting handle month but next-to-worst month for sportsbook revenue.
More legal gambling could be coming to NC
The lively sports betting marketplace in North Carolina is contrasted by a tepid brick-and-mortar casino option for most state residents.
As 2026 began, the state still only had three casinos - Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort in Cherokee, Harrah's Cherokee Valley River Hotel & Casino in Murphy, and a temporary facility Catawba Two Kings Casino Resort in Kings Mountain.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians runs the two Harrah's properties, while Catawba Nation operates the third casino.
The two Harrah's sites are located in rather sparsely-populated areas of western North Carolina, while the Catawba temporary casino features only 1,000 slot machines and about a dozen table games.
But major changes are coming at the Two Kings Resort site - a $1 billion permanent casino spanning 2 million square feet is scheduled to open in phases, first in spring 2026 followed by a full rollout roughly 12 months later.
The site is only about 35 miles west of Charlotte, so it seems destined to become the preeminent casino in the state - at least for now.
North Carolina is one of the largest states without any commercial casinos, and lawmakers have been suggesting a change to that policy in recent years.
Those goals were further encouraged by a February 2025 poll by Meredith College that found that residents surveyed across the state showed 58% approval of the idea of legalizing more casinos, with 32% opposed and 10% saying they were unsure.
Neighboring Virginia already has come around on casino legalization recently, and facilities in Bristol and Danville in particular undoubtedly are welcoming a healthy chunk of some North Carolinians' disposable income. The result? Extra tax revenue for Virginia.
The historical pattern is a familiar one across the U.S. - once a nearby state adds a new legal gambling option, that state at first gains extra customers, followed by the impacted state reacting as a means to bring that spending back within their own borders.
But it's also true that negotiations among lawmakers on the exact parameters of legal gambling expansion often takes several years before such bills finally are turned into law. So residents of North Carolina who like to gamble may have to settle, at least for a while, with buying lottery tickets and betting on sporting events.
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