S.C. Senate to Consider Legalized Gambling on Horse Races
Jessica Holdman/S.C. Daily Gazette
COLUMBIA — In an attempt to get out of the starting gate legislation that would allow South Carolinians to bet on horse racing through a phone app, proponents are promising to hold the gambling to Palmetto State races only.
And those who want to make a wager must be present at the race to do so.
The Senate Finance Committee voted 12-6 Tuesday to advance the bipartisan proposal, led by Sen. Michael Johnson, R-Tega Cay.
It’s one of several bills filed this year to allow gambling in some form.
South Carolina misses out on millions in potential revenue from betting, proponents say, as the industry grows — both legally and illegally.
Of all the proposals, this measure — dubbed the Equine Advancement Act — has the best odds of passing.
Others have failed to make it out of committee. A bill allowing a casino made it to the House floor before getting sent back to committee to die.
The state’s struggling equestrian community pitched the bill as a way to revive the once-thriving industry by sending a portion of the money back to horse-centric programs and businesses in the form of grants.
“The goal is to take the proceeds from this and pump that directly into our equine industry — horse training, horse farms, horse racing, all of those things — so that they have an opportunity to compete with the other states that already have this,” Johnson said previously.
The equine industry brings in $2 billion annually to South Carolina and is responsible for nearly 29,000 jobs, according to a 2019 state-commissioned study from the Department of Agriculture.
However, even with the backing of the Senate’s powerful Finance Chairman Harvey Peeler, of Gaffney, passage is far from a sure bet in a historically vice-averse Legislature.
The proposal would allow gambling on approved apps at the horse racing events in the state, of which there are currently five — the Carolina Cup and Colonial Cup in Camden, the spring and fall steeplechases in Aiken, and the recently revived Steeplechase of Charleston. Geo-locating technology in the apps must show the person is present on site to place a bet.
A previous iteration of the bill, which allowed virtual betting on live races held anywhere at any time, went too far for gambling foes on the committee afraid of re-opening the door to video poker in the state.
Sen. Larry Grooms, one of the six who voted against the measure, reminded the committee Tuesday about the industry that once grew to $3.5 billion in the state on the authority of a little-noticed clause slipped into the budget in 1986.
The Bonneau Beach Republican is one of just a few senators left who participated in the Legislature’s fight to get rid of video poker, vowing not to allow a repeat.
It’s been 25 years since a state Supreme Court ruling made the game illegal. A section of the equine betting bill specifies that the ban on that and other forms of gambling, such as slot machines, remains in place.
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“I’m just really hopeful that we plugged all the holes,” Sen. Greg Hembree said before voting favor of the equine betting bill.
“We just have to be vigilant and watch it and see how it evolves and be ready to come back if somebody figures out a way to take advantage,” the Little River Republican said.
Tuesday’s vote marks the third time bills allowing betting on horse races have advanced to the Senate floor. Two similar bills sponsored by former GOP Sen. Katrina Shealy of Lexington reached the floor in 2022 and 2024, but neither ever got a vote in the chamber.
Even if a pro-gambling bill manages to make it to Gov. Henry McMaster’s desk, it faces an almost guaranteed veto from the Republican who has opposed gambling over his entire career.
Representatives of both the Palmetto Family Council and the South Carolina Baptist Convention also have lobbied heavily against the various gambling bills under consideration this year at the Statehouse.
A bill that would have blown the gambling doors wide-open, allowing a casino to be built in the state, advanced to the House floor last spring. But in January, GOP leaders agreed to send it back to the Ways and Means Committee, knowing it had no chance at becoming law this year anyway. The backward move was a nice way of killing the GOP-sponsored bill.
An online sports betting bill has so far failed to get out of a Senate subcommittee. And the Senate Finance Committee sent a bingo machine bill advocated as benefiting veterans’ organizations back to the lower panel Tuesday.
Hembree said he gives it three or four years before gambling proponents are back trying to widen allowances for betting on horse racing. Others expect a push in the much nearer future.
“It’s a bit of the nose under the tent,” he said.
