South Carolina Candidate for Governor Wants Sports Betting Legalized

Former U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham is running for Governor of South Carolina and one of his objectives is to get sports wagering legalized in a state that has barely any type of gambling.

It is estimated that more than 31 million Americans wagered over 7 billion dollars on the last weekend's Super Bowl and Cunningham says the state is missing out.

“This is about freedom, this is about liberty.” Cunningham said this week. “This is about not allowing politicians to tell people you can’t put 20 dollars down on the Super Bowl when people are already doing it. We might as well generate a little bit of tax revenue to fix the problems that have been piling up.”

He thinks the choice for whether or not people bet should be up to the individuals.

“I think we should trust people to make their own decisions on sports betting and be able to place a wager.” he said. “And if we can fix our roads and pay our teachers a little bit more in the process, even better”.

Some 30 states allow the activity and most have taken in significant tax revenues as a result. 

“It’s such a hyper partisan environment where democrats and republicans can’t even agree on what day it is. There are still things that we can build upon and common ground and I feel like this is one of them and if there’s somebody to do it, I’ve got the track record to do it”.

Of course Cunningham will have an uphill battle to win the Governor's race.  He has a "D" next to his name in one of the reddest states in the nation.

- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com