Although state law already lets the Eastern Band offer live poker, slot machines and video-style games at their casinos in western North Carolina, the sports-book option took shape after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal law that made most sports gambling illegal.
The Senate voted 43-7 on Tuesday for a proposal that would allow the tribe to offer sports betting off-track racing gambling, now it moves forward to the state's lower house.
Eastern Band Principal Chief Richard Sneed said the options would provide new amenities to patrons but downplayed them as big money-makers for the casinos, San Francisco Chronicle reports. The state also would see a slight uptick in its share of revenues.