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by DUSTIN OLSON
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With summer winding down, football fever is in full force. South Carolinians are crazy about the sport, with lots of folks counting down the days until the 2025 season kicks off.
There’s another tradition many fans will also be following. Once it begins, they will jump into their cars and trucks and cross the state line to North Carolina, where it’s legal to bet on sporting events.
That means Palmetto State cash flows into the neighboring Tar Heel state due to South Carolina’s ban on gambling.
But is public opinion changing on the south side of the state line? A new poll shows the answer is a resounding, “Yes!”
Attitudes about wagering have evolved in recent years. They began shifting on Jan. 31, 2010, when the South Carolina Education Lottery participated in its very first multi-state Powerball drawing. From that moment until FY 2023-24, it has transferred an estimated $6.8 billion to education. It’s likely the public’s embrace of that program is helping to fuel a desire to see state restrictions on other types of gaming eased.
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My company, American Pulse Research & Polling, surveyed 570 likely South Carolina Republican Primary voters between July 16 and 19. Most attention focused on the poll showing Attorney General Alan Wilson narrowly leading Congresswoman Nancy Mace in the race for governor, but the most surprising findings came from two questions we asked on gambling.
We first asked, “Do you support or oppose allowing casino-style gambling in South Carolina if it were restricted to designated zones and the tax revenues were mandated to support programs such as schools and roads?”
A solid 59.2% of respondents support it, while a total of 35.2% oppose it. Some 5.6% said they were unsure or didn’t know. (The survey’s margin of error is plus or minus 4.1%).
It’s worth noting that discussion of high-end projects, such as a $1 billion casino-resort proposed by Greenville developer Wallace Cheves for Santee, S.C., within the so-called “corridor of shame” keeps the issue elevated in the public eye.
We followed that up by asking, “Do you support or oppose legalizing sports betting in South Carolina if all tax revenues were dedicated to funding public programs like schools and roads?”
On that question, while total support dipped slightly to 52%, it remains significantly ahead of those who oppose it, which stands at 41%. Another seven percent said they’re unsure or didn’t know.
Sports betting proponents point to advancements within the gaming industry. For many years, discussions about wagering on sporting events conjured images of dealing with a shady street-corner bookie. But that is no longer the case in 2025.
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Groups like the Sports Betting Alliance work with industry leaders such as FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, and Fanatics Sportsbook to help ensure the wagering experience is safe and above board. Their goal is to replace unregulated betting platforms and operations that often lack safeguards and protections for players and which frequently evade paying taxes. In short, it appears either the efforts of proponents or simply cultural shifts are improving the industry’s image and gaining civic acceptance.
It should be noted that both questions included a phrase about dedicating tax revenue to public programs, such as schools and roads. Given South Carolinians’ acceptance of a state lottery stipulating that proceeds must be targeted to public education, the results suggest that the same formula could be replicated to secure public support for other types of sanctioned gaming.
Additionally, while our survey focused on the upcoming GOP gubernatorial primary due to the substantial numerical advantage of Republicans within the state, there is no reason to suggest that the results would be different among South Carolina Democrats. National polling, such as a 2022 poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, for instance, shows little difference between support for legalized gambling within the two parties. My assessment is that a strong majority opinion of Republican Primary voters in the Palmetto State is a preview of future policy.
With a crowded field of candidates expected in the 2026 gubernatorial primary, candidates may want to consider adding a plank to their platform supporting sports betting or allowing limited casino-style gaming—if it includes a specific targeted application of revenues—as a way to make their campaign stand out from their opponents.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Dustin Olson is managing partner of American Pulse Research & Polling and the founder of the political consulting firm Olson Strategies & Advertising. A seasoned strategist, he also hosts the top-rated Political Trade Secrets podcast. Olson’s polling can be found at PollingClub.com.
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6 comments
“They sell you on what good it might do. In order for you to ignore the real bad, it will do!”
Gambling in the past, i.e., Poker Machines, caused massive damage to SC Citizens in the past. Greedy Companies will take your money, and give you: Financial ruin, drug and Alcohol abuse, family destruction, and massive taxpayer costs. JUST LIKE IT HAS DONE EVERY SINGLE OTHER TIME IN SC.
Because none of those things will happen unless gambling is available to the masses?
If you want to prohibit things, I can play that game. But gambling is going to be down the list. I am guessing you don’t want to hear what might end up at the top of the list.
Go to a casino in a state with legalized casinos, place a $5 bet on a hand of blackjack, and you have a 48% chance of winning the hand, assuming you have any knowledge of the game. This is at the same time that you are enjoying free alcohol on the house. Buy $5 worth of lottery tickets that allows the Power Ball lottery, such as SC, and you have a 25% chance of winning anything, and only one chance in 270 million of winning it all. Meanwhile, you have plopped down your own money for that cold beer that you are drinking as you ride down the road. Think about it, which would you choose?
This is a terrible idea. Nothing good can come from legalized gambling. If you want a generation of young men destroyed by sports betting then allow it. The corrupt legislators who can think of nothing more than extracting more revenue from the citizens and how much of it they will get is disgusting.
I used to do the whole libertarian “let people be free to mess up their lives” shtick but at some point I grew up and realized this isn’t about freedom to do anything worthwhile. For some, gambling is entertainment, but for most it is simply a disease. It is a sickness whereby obscenely rich people exploit tons of people who can’t stop themselves.
I don’t think someone gambling away everything they have to their name, losing all of their friends and family, and ending themselves because their lizard brain reacts to the dopamine hits in ways they can’t resist, just so some greaseball schmuck gets a few thousand dollars more to their name does anything at all to improve the quality or quantity of our supposed freedoms.
Spend about an hour reading tales from casino workers or people who lost family members to the addiction. It will turn your stomach. It’ll also infuriate you that people do the same with sports gambling and online gambling apps, losing everything and ruining lives in the comfort of their own home. If you aren’t one of the “it’ll never happen to me so why care” types it will make you sick to your stomach, change you.
Republicans will extoll the virtues of the free market when it benefits the rich at the expense of the poor, yet deny the basic rights to grow plants and have bodily autonomy.