Why Online Betting and Casinos Aren’t ‘Compatible’ for Communities Anywhere in SC

All that glitters is not gold.

Republican leaders are proposing three separate bills to give gambling a stronghold in South Carolina — one to legalize casinos and two to legalize online sports betting. A House Ways and Means subcommittee will consider two of them Tuesday.

The casino bill, H. 4176, is authored by Rep. Gary Brewer and co-sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Weston Newton and House Labor, Commerce, and Industry Chairman Bill Herbkersman, among others.

The online sports betting bills, S. 444 and H. 3625, are authored by Republicans.

Low-income individuals always get the brunt end of gambling because their financial stress makes them more prone to the risk of repeated gambling that leads to addiction.

In that sense, jobs are created by plundering the most vulnerable of our neighbors.

When video poker proliferated in South Carolina in the 1990s, we learned all too painfully about the increase in bankruptcy, domestic violence, divorce, mental health issues, and even suicide.

In turn, taxpayers bear the burden of those costs as the state must intervene with welfare, health care, criminal justice and the like, while the gambling profiteers dance their way to the bank.

Do we really want towns like Biloxi, Mississippi, in South Carolina, that are havens for crime and corruption?

I hope we learned our lesson with video poker.

The opening paragraph of the casino bill says, “The General Assembly finds that casino gaming is not consistent with nor compatible with the economic, labor, or tourism industry profile for most communities in South Carolina.”

I couldn’t agree more — but would say that principle applies to the entire state.

Casinos are predatory and placing one in Santee or along the economically depressed Interstate 95 corridor blatantly disregards the social disparities faced by our neighbors in that part of the state.

Consider a 2012 report in The Washington Post, citing a study’s findings that while casinos created jobs, they also “lead to a plethora of social ills, including increased substance abuse, mental illness and suicide, violent crime, auto theft and larceny, and bankruptcy. The latter three all increased by 10% in communities that allowed gambling.”

In addition to the social costs, casinos provide cover to sex traffickers as “casino crowds and co-located lodging facilities — coupled with the transient nature of sex trafficking — provide convenience and cover for sex traffickers,” wrote Dave Vialpando, a veteran law enforcement officer.

I-95 has long been cited as the main north-south route for smuggling drugs and human trafficking. A casino along this corridor would only exacerbate these problems.

While some may regard casinos as the dark underbelly of Big Gambling, its close cousin — online sports betting — seeks to cast itself as the more cultured, sophisticated form of gambling.

While online sports betting is illegal in South Carolina, none of us are naïve enough to believe that people in the Palmetto State aren’t doing it.

There are certainly ways to get around state law, but that — in and of itself — should not be a reason for us to dive headlong into an arena that has high costs.

Gambling in the privacy of your home on your iPhone or laptop is easy. Combine the convenience and accessibility of online gambling with sports and you have a potent combination.

Robert Strezo with The Center for Public Justice states, “Sports betting is having an enormous impact on society, and it is disproportionately impacting the lives of young men who are less risk-averse and interested in sports. Nearly 60 percent of 18 to 22-year-olds have bet on sports and 20-year-old males represent about 40% of the calls to hotlines for gambling addiction. The targeting of college youth, who often have access to financial aid — which can be redirected to fund their addiction — has compounded the burden of college debt with gambling debts and the costs of addiction therapy.”

Because of its very nature, it disproportionately affects young men.

According to a January 2024 study, 72% of sports bettors are young men.

Ultimately, there is neither a strong social nor fiscal argument for South Carolina to pursue casinos or online sports betting.

In addition to these and other concerns, Palmetto Family is committed to a biblical worldview that calls us to pursue human flourishing.

South Carolina is at a crossroads: We can either choose to pursue the “glitter” of gambling or embrace the core Judeo-Christian values of hard work, productivity, and using the fruits of God’s provision to meet our needs, the needs of other South Carolinians and expanding and invest to continue to make South Carolina a great place to live, work and raise a family.

*This op-ed was published on April 18, 2025 by the South Carolina Daily Gazette.

Steve Pettit serves as president of the Palmetto Family Alliance, an organization founded to fight the expansion of video poker. Pettit is a graduate of The Citadel and was honored by The Citadel Alumni Association in 2015 as its 142nd Distinguished Alumni. He served as the president of Bob Jones University from 2014 to 2023.