South Carolina Sports Betting: Is It Legal? Laws & Options

No. Sports betting is not legal in South Carolina, either online or at retail locations. There are no state-licensed sportsbooks, no betting apps approved by the state, and no casinos that offer in-person wagering. The state has no commercial or tribal casinos at all, which makes it one of the most restrictive gambling states in the country.

The only legal, regulated forms of gambling are the South Carolina Education Lottery, which voters approved through a constitutional amendment in 2000 and which launched in 2002, and charitable bingo. Casino gambling, pari-mutuel horse race wagering, and state-regulated online gambling all remain prohibited.

Multiple bills to legalize sports betting have been introduced since 2019. The most recent, Senate Bill 444, cleared a Senate subcommittee hearing in February 2026, the furthest any sports betting measure has advanced in state history, but it did not receive a committee vote and remains pending. Because South Carolina has no legal sportsbooks, the only books that accept residents are offshore operators, which are not licensed or regulated in the United States and carry real risk.

There are no state-licensed online sportsbooks in South Carolina. Because the state has not legalized sports betting and has not issued any licenses, the national operators that dominate other markets, such as DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, and Caesars, do not offer sportsbook apps in the state. There is no legal, regulated sportsbook that a South Carolina resident can sign up with inside state lines.

The only sportsbooks that accept South Carolina players are offshore operators. These are books licensed in foreign jurisdictions such as Panama and Curacao that continue to take U.S. customers. They are not licensed or regulated by South Carolina or by any U.S. authority, which means they operate without the consumer protections that licensed sportsbooks in legal states must provide. They are covered below for comparison and education, but residents should understand the risks before using them, which we lay out in detail in the next section.

If you are looking for a regulated experience, the nearest option is to cross into North Carolina, which launched mobile and retail sports betting and is covered further down this page. Otherwise, the only books reaching South Carolina are the offshore sites that follow.

A future regulated market in South Carolina would address most of these risks by adding licensing, consumer protections, and a formal complaint process. None of that exists with offshore sites.

Catawba Two Kings Casino

For most South Carolina residents, the Catawba Two Kings Casino in Kings Mountain is the closest legal land-based sportsbook. It sits just off Interstate 85, about 35 miles west of Charlotte and close to the South Carolina border, which makes it the easiest drive for bettors in the Upstate and around Rock Hill. Notably, the Catawba Indian Nation that owns it is based in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The casino opened in a temporary facility in July 2021 and launched its sportsbook in September 2022. Unlike the two Harrah’s properties, Catawba operates its own branded sportsbook rather than a Caesars book. It runs on roughly 30 self-service IGT kiosks plus staffed betting windows, all open 24 hours a day. The minimum bet is $5, the kiosk maximum is $500, and there is no mobile app, so all wagering is in person. A permanent, much larger casino resort is under construction on the site.

Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort

Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort, owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and operated by Caesars Entertainment, opened in 1997 and is the largest casino in North Carolina. Its sportsbook, branded as Caesars Sportsbook, is one of only three retail sports betting venues in the state. The space is built for viewing, with a main video wall about 90 feet wide, numerous smaller screens, and rentable private fan caves. Bettors can use staffed ticket windows or self-service kiosks to place straight bets, parlays, teasers, props, and futures. The minimum betting age is 21. For Upstate residents it is a longer drive into the mountains than Kings Mountain, but it is the most full-featured book of the three.

Harrah’s Cherokee Valley River

Harrah’s Cherokee Valley River, in Murphy, is the sister property to the Cherokee resort and also runs a Caesars Sportsbook, which opened in 2021. The sportsbook sits just off the main casino floor and features a video wall about 32 feet wide along with comfortable recliner seating. Bettors can place the full range of wager types on both professional and collegiate events. Because it is in the far western corner of the state, near both the Georgia and Tennessee lines, it is the longest drive of the three for most South Carolinians. The minimum age is 21, and the statewide mobile app can be used on the premises and anywhere else inside North Carolina.

If you instead consider an offshore site, reread the risk section above first. The lack of a regulator is the single most important difference between an offshore book and a regulated one.

Because there are no state-licensed sportsbooks, the regulated welcome offers common in other states, such as deposit matches and bonus bets, are not available inside South Carolina today. The promotions residents can currently access come from daily fantasy and prediction-market platforms, which run their own sign-up offers, and from offshore books, whose bonuses are typically weighted toward cryptocurrency deposits and carry rollover, or wagering, requirements. Rollover determines how many times you must bet through a bonus before you can withdraw, and offshore terms commonly run anywhere from a low 1x up to 10x or more, so the same headline percentage can be worth very different amounts depending on the fine print.

Typical offer types you will encounter at the alternatives and offshore books include sign-up bonuses such as a deposit match, odds boosts that enhance the price on selected markets, free credits or free plays, and loyalty or reload promotions. To get real value, read the terms in full, compare offers across sites, and confirm any required promo code before you deposit. If South Carolina legalizes sports betting, the licensed national operators would be expected to bring the same style of welcome promotions seen elsewhere, subject to the rules the new commission sets.

There are no state-licensed mobile betting apps in South Carolina. The mobile options available to residents are the apps and mobile sites of daily fantasy operators, prediction markets, and offshore books. Offshore sites generally do not offer downloadable apps through the official app stores and instead run as mobile-optimized websites, which means any app store listing claiming to be one of these offshore books should be treated with suspicion.

Under the framework proposed in Senate Bill 444, sports betting would be primarily a statewide online and mobile product, since the state has no casinos to anchor a retail-first model. As in every legal state, wagers would have to be placed while the bettor is physically located within South Carolina, enforced through geolocation technology, even though account sign-up could occur from anywhere.

Live, or in-game, betting is not available through any regulated South Carolina sportsbook because none exist. Offshore books and some prediction markets offer in-play wagering to residents now, with odds that update in real time as a game unfolds. Some platforms also offer microbetting, where you wager on the next play, drive, pitch, or possession rather than the full game outcome. If a regulated market launches, live betting would be expected to be part of the licensed operators’ offerings, as it is a standard feature across legal U.S. sportsbooks. The specifics, including which in-play markets are allowed and any limits on live college wagering, would depend on the rules adopted by the South Carolina Sports Wagering Commission.

Because offshore books cannot reliably process U.S. bank and card payments, cryptocurrency has become the default funding method for South Carolina residents who use them. Bitcoin and other digital currencies skip declined cards and payment middlemen, and crypto withdrawals are generally the fastest way to get paid at an offshore site, often clearing in hours rather than the several business days that wires or checks can take. Many offshore books also reserve their largest bonuses for crypto deposits.

That speed comes with the same caveats as everything else offshore. Crypto transactions are irreversible, so an error in a wallet address or a dispute with the book leaves you with no chargeback and no regulator to call. Treat crypto as a convenience that does not change the underlying risk of betting with an unregulated operator. None of this applies to a regulated market, where standard banking with consumer protections is the norm.

There is no firm date. The path to legal sports betting in South Carolina runs through several obstacles that have stopped every prior bill.

Gov. Henry McMaster has consistently opposed gambling expansion of every kind and has signaled he would veto sports betting legislation. Overriding a veto requires a two-thirds majority in both the House and the Senate, a high bar supporters have not shown they can clear. Because McMaster is term-limited and cannot run again, the position of the next governor, elected in November 2026, will be a major factor in whether future bills can advance.

Some legal observers also argue that broad gambling expansion in South Carolina may require a constitutional amendment, which must be approved by voters at a general election. That route adds years to any timeline, and several past bills, including the 2021 measure, were drafted as constitutional amendments for this reason.

Analysts who follow the state generally do not expect near-term legalization. The combination of a sitting governor opposed to gambling, the loss of the bill’s leading House champion, and the unsettled constitutional question makes a quick launch unlikely. The more commonly cited window for any regulated market is later in the decade, and only if a future governor is willing to sign a bill and the Senate is willing to move one out of committee. Treat any specific projected date as an estimate, not a certainty.

Legalization in South Carolina is as much about politics as policy. The governor’s office has been the firmest obstacle, with Gov. McMaster opposed to gambling expansion in nearly every form. Many Republican legislators share constitutional and moral concerns, while Democrats have been more supportive, often citing potential education revenue. Lottery officials have signaled openness to an oversight role. Religious and family-values groups, including the Palmetto Family Alliance, have testified in opposition, citing gambling-addiction concerns. Public polling has shown meaningful support for legalization, though support tends to depend on ballot language, how tax revenue would be used, and the strength of consumer protections. Pro and college sports stakeholders in the region generally favor betting growth in the Southeast. The net effect is a measure that can reach a hearing but has not yet been able to clear the votes needed to overcome a likely veto.

2018: The Supreme Court Strikes Down PASPA

In May 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in Murphy v. NCAA, ending the federal ban that had limited legal sports betting to a handful of states. The ruling gave every state the power to legalize sports betting on its own terms and set off the wave of state-by-state legalization that South Carolina has so far stayed out of.

2019: First Modern Push

South Carolina lawmakers introduced joint resolutions in both chambers, HJR 3409 and SJR 57, calling for a constitutional amendment to expand several forms of gambling, including casinos and sports betting. Backed by Sen. Gerald Malloy and Reps. J. Todd Rutherford and Kambrell Garvin, the effort failed to gain traction and died after first readings. A separate resolution to create a gambling study commission also failed.

2021: House Bill 3395

Introduced by Rep. J. Todd Rutherford, House Bill 3395 proposed amending Article XVII of the South Carolina Constitution to permit sports betting on professional sports, pari-mutuel betting on horse racing, and casino gaming, with revenue directed to highway, road, and bridge maintenance. The bill was read once and referred to the House Judiciary Committee, where it died without a vote.

2022: House Bill 5277

Co-sponsored by Rep. William Herbkersman and Rep. Todd Rutherford, House Bill 5277 proposed legalizing both online and retail sports betting and would have permitted roughly eight to 12 operators taxed at 10%. Despite bipartisan support, the measure ran out of time and died in committee before the end of the two-year legislative session.

2023: House Bill 3749

House Bill 3749, sometimes described as the South Carolina Equine and Sports Wagering Act, proposed legalizing up to eight sports betting apps, setting the minimum age at 18, and including no prohibition on college sports betting. It was referred to a House Ways and Means subcommittee but missed the April 10 crossover deadline to move from the House to the Senate and stalled.

2024 to 2025: House Bill 3625

Pre-filed in December 2024 by Rep. Chris Murphy, House Bill 3625, the South Carolina Sports Wagering Act, was the most comprehensive framework the Legislature had considered. It would create a South Carolina Sports Wagering Commission, set a privilege tax, establish licensing rules, and add a provision clarifying that a person placing a legal sports wager would not be in violation of existing anti-gambling law. The House Ways and Means Revenue Policy Subcommittee heard the bill in April 2025 but did not vote.

2025 to 2026: Senate Bill 444

Sens. Tom Davis and Matthew Leber introduced Senate Bill 444 on March 12, 2025, as a companion to the House effort. It carried over into 2026 and received its Senate subcommittee hearing on Feb. 18, 2026, the furthest any sports betting bill has progressed in the state. It remains in committee without a vote.

What the Law Currently Says

The principal statute is Section 16-19-130 of the South Carolina Code, which prohibits betting, pool selling, and bookmaking. It makes it unlawful for any person within the state to engage in betting, to keep a place for recording or registering bets, or to record or forward wagers on the result of any contest of skill or any “lot, chance, casualty, unknown or contingent event whatsoever.” A related provision, Section 16-19-40, addresses unlawful games and betting more broadly. Both sit within Title 16, Chapter 19 of the Code, titled Gambling and Lotteries. These statutes are generally enforced against operators rather than individual bettors, and there are no documented cases of South Carolina residents being charged solely for placing a personal bet online with an offshore book. That is not the same as those sites being legal or regulated.

The bills before the Legislature would not repeal these statutes. Instead, House Bill 3625 would add a new Section 16-19-135 stating that a person who engages in sports wagering or fantasy sports contests, as defined in the new chapter, is not in violation of Section 16-19-130.

Federal Laws That Apply

Two federal laws are most often cited in connection with offshore betting. The Wire Act of 1961 targets the transmission of interstate bets and is directed at gambling businesses, not individual bettors. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 targets financial institutions that process payments to unregulated gambling sites, which is a major reason offshore books lean on cryptocurrency. Neither law makes the individual act of placing a bet a federal crime, but neither one makes offshore sportsbooks legal or regulated either.

Official Government Resources

This page is informational and is not legal advice. Anyone with questions about their own situation should consult a licensed South Carolina attorney.

Minimum Betting Age

Senate Bill 444 proposes a minimum sports betting age of 18, which is unusual. Most legal states set the age at 21. If enacted as written, South Carolina would join a small group of jurisdictions, including Montana, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Kentucky, and the District of Columbia, that allow sports betting at 18. By contrast, the nearest retail sportsbooks, in North Carolina, require bettors to be 21. The daily fantasy and prediction-market platforms available in South Carolina today generally set their own minimum at 18.

Geolocation and In-State Requirements

Under the proposed online model, bets would have to be placed while the bettor is physically within South Carolina, verified by geolocation. This mirrors the standard in every other legal state.

Prohibited Wagers

The proposed legislation defines categories such as youth sports and sets out who is ineligible to wager. The commission would have authority to issue detailed regulations, including any restrictions on specific bet types, before a market launched.

College sports betting is a point of real significance in South Carolina given the size of the fan bases for the University of South Carolina and Clemson University. Under both the comprehensive House framework and Senate Bill 444, wagering on collegiate sports would be permitted, and the bills as drafted do not include a prohibition on betting on in-state college teams.

This stands in contrast to several states that restrict college wagering. For example, New Jersey and Virginia bar bets on in-state college teams, and some states prohibit player prop bets on college athletes. South Carolina’s proposals, as written, would allow college betting more broadly, though the final rules would ultimately rest with the proposed commission, and the text can change as a bill moves. Until a bill passes, no regulated college betting of any kind is available in the state.

Revenue Potential

The clearest evidence of what South Carolina is leaving on the table comes from next-door North Carolina, which launched mobile betting in March 2024. In its first full fiscal year, July 2024 through June 2025, North Carolina sportsbooks took more than $6.4 billion in wagers, produced roughly $647 million in gross revenue, and generated about $116 million in state tax at an 18% rate. North Carolina has since raised that rate to 23%. Because Charlotte sits directly on the South Carolina line, and the nearest North Carolina casino sportsbook is about 35 miles from the border, lawmakers assume a meaningful share of that activity comes from South Carolina residents crossing over. Earlier in the debate, one South Carolina legislator estimated that roughly 2.5 billion dollars is wagered illegally online each year by state residents, an argument supporters use to frame legalization as capturing activity that is already happening. Actual South Carolina revenue cannot be known until a market launches.

Where Revenue Would Go

Past South Carolina proposals, including the 2021 constitutional amendment, directed gambling revenue toward purposes such as highway, road, and bridge maintenance and construction. For reference, North Carolina directs its sports betting tax revenue to the athletic departments of 13 University of North Carolina system schools, problem-gambling treatment and education, youth sports, an events fund, and the general fund. The destination of any future South Carolina sports betting tax revenue would be set by whatever bill ultimately passes.

None of these books offers a legal sportsbook in South Carolina today. This is a projection of what a regulated market could look like, not a list of available options.

College Sports

Football reigns in South Carolina, and the Clemson Tigers, who won national championships in the 2016 and 2018 seasons, are the most popular team in any sport in the state. The annual Clemson versus South Carolina rivalry, known as the Palmetto Bowl, is the marquee event on the local calendar. The state is home to a long list of Division I programs: Clemson University, the University of South Carolina, Coastal Carolina University, Charleston Southern University, The Citadel, College of Charleston, Furman University, Presbyterian College, South Carolina State University, USC Upstate, Winthrop University and Wofford College. The proposed legislation would allow wagering on college sports, including these in-state teams.

Professional Teams

South Carolina has no major professional franchise of its own, so fans look to the region. Common rooting interests include the Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons in the NFL; the Charlotte Hornets and Atlanta Hawks in the NBA; the Carolina Hurricanes in the NHL; and the Atlanta Braves in MLB, with much of the state falling in Braves Country.

Motorsports and Golf

Darlington Raceway hosts NASCAR every year, and motorsports betting would likely be popular in the state, which is part of why a subcommittee amendment added NASCAR as a qualifying operator under Senate Bill 444. South Carolina is also golf country, from Hilton Head to Kiawah Island to Myrtle Beach, and the RBC Heritage on Hilton Head Island each spring is one of the state’s signature annual sporting events. The PGA Tour was added alongside NASCAR in that same amendment.

The North Carolina comparison is the one South Carolina lawmakers cite most, since its strong first-year handle and tax revenue, much of it likely fueled in part by South Carolina residents crossing the border, illustrate the revenue the Palmetto State forgoes by staying out of the market.

Daily Fantasy Sports

Daily fantasy sports operate in South Carolina in a legal gray area. No state law expressly legalizes daily fantasy contests, but the activity has not been banned and is not treated as prohibited gambling, so major platforms continue to accept South Carolina players. PrizePicks, DraftKings, FanDuel, Underdog, Sleeper, and Betr are among the operators available to residents. These are contests of skill rather than traditional sportsbooks. Most use a pick’em format in which you choose whether a player will go over or under a projected stat line and combine two or more picks for a larger potential payout, similar in feel to a parlay. The minimum age is generally 18.

Sports Prediction Markets

Sports prediction markets are a newer option. Platforms such as Kalshi, Polymarket, ProphetX, and operators tied to DraftKings and FanDuel offer event contracts on sports outcomes. They operate under federal oversight from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as derivatives, rather than under state gambling law, which is why they reach states without legal sports betting. On these platforms you buy a contract priced between roughly one cent and 99 cents that pays out at a dollar if your side is correct, and the price reflects the market’s view of the probability. The legal status of sports event contracts is being contested in court, with more than 30 states arguing they should be treated as gambling subject to state regulation, so this category could change.

Social and Sweepstakes Sportsbooks

Social and sweepstakes sportsbooks operate under promotional-currency models rather than real-money wagering, which is how they remain available in states without legal betting. Availability and legality of these models vary nationally and have come under regulatory pressure in several states, but South Carolina has not enacted laws specifically prohibiting them, and many leading brands accept residents.

The State Lottery and Charitable Bingo

The South Carolina Education Lottery, live since 2002, is the state’s only fully state-run gambling, offering draw games including Powerball and Mega Millions, with proceeds supporting education. Charitable bingo, legal since the 1970s, is permitted when conducted by licensed charitable organizations.

Horse Racing

Horse race wagering is not legal in South Carolina. Pari-mutuel betting on out-of-state races is prohibited, and the state does not permit advance-deposit wagering sites that let bettors wager on races from a computer or phone.

Online Casinos and Poker

Online casino gambling and online poker are not legal in South Carolina. As with sports betting, the only sites that accept residents are offshore operators that are not licensed or regulated in the United States and carry the same risks described earlier.

South Carolina has no land-based commercial casinos and no tribal casinos. The only casino-style gambling physically available in the state comes from casino cruise ships, sometimes called “cruises to nowhere,” which sail from coastal ports and offer gambling only once the vessel reaches international waters. The Big M Casino, which operates out of Little River, is the best-known operator of this kind. These cruises are the lone in-state casino option and are separate from sports betting, which they do not offer in any regulated form. Residents who want a true casino floor or a retail sportsbook generally travel to North Carolina, where the three tribal casinos described above are located.

Looking ahead, several industry trends could shape a future South Carolina market: federally regulated prediction markets, which were a recurring theme in the 2026 hearing; microbetting on the next pitch, play, or possession; mobile-first design and faster payments; cryptocurrency; and live streaming with real-time data integration. These are industry trends, not products offered by any legal South Carolina sportsbook, because no such sportsbook exists yet. When evaluating the offshore books that do reach residents, our review process weighs payout reliability, banking that works, operating history and security, odds and pricing, mobile performance, market depth, and support, since with no local regulator standing behind a book, the factors that protect a bettor’s money matter most. Because these are unregulated operators, no rating should be read as a guarantee.