Senate leader Phil Berger took a step back from pushing to usher more casinos into North Carolina on Wednesday, saying that he was not “intent on moving anything in particular” related to casinos during the state’s short legislative session that starts in April.
During last year’s legislative long session, whether additional casinos should be legalized in the state was one of the primary causes of a standoff between the legislative chambers over the months-delayed $30 billion state budget, which was supposed to be passed by July 1 but instead passed into law in early October.
Berger was a strong advocate for legalizing more casinos, and as the Republican-controlled Senate’s top leader, he made various moves to achieve this, including setting a stake in the ground that casino legalization and the authorization of thousands of video lottery terminals must be included in the state budget.
But this met with reticence in the House, where Speaker Tim Moore said there was not enough votes to approve casinos inside the budget. The legislative proposal was also met with opposition from some Democrats and from many local residents in counties that had been mentioned as possible sites for future casinos, including Berger’s home of Rockingham County.
Casinos are legal on tribal lands in the western part of the state but not elsewhere. Berger has previously cited statewide casino legalization as a way to prevent neighboring states from taking away potential North Carolina revenue. This includes Virginia, which is set to open up a new casino this year in Danville, just 20 miles from Rockingham.
After a lot of back and forth, the Senate folded and casinos were not included in the budget.
But when the legislative leaders announced a compromise on the budget that didn’t include casinos, Berger said that lawmakers could consider taking it up again during next year’s short session, as previously reported by The News & Observer.
He said that he believed proponents had ignored potential revenue and job benefits to rural counties. “It was just pretty clear that the facts were almost beside the point, as to what those proposals will do for rural areas,” he said then.
No champion for casino legalization
But on Wednesday Berger’s urgency for casino legalization had dulled.
Asked if he expected legislation on casinos or video lottery terminals to resurface during the short session, Berger said he believed there remained interest in looking “at options for new sources of revenue for the state,” but that he had not had conversations with any lawmaker that lead him to believe someone would champion a casino bill.
“I am not pursuing any particular action,” he told reporters. “Obviously, if there are other folks that decide that it’s something they want to pick up and move with, we’ll see what happens with that, but I certainly am not intent on moving anything in particular.”
He said there is some discussion on gambling terminals but that he did not know details.
“It strikes me that in many respects some of that may need a little more runway than what we’ll have for the short session,” said Berger.
Across the building, in the House chambers, Moore echoed this, saying that there had “been more discussion about the VLTs” than about casinos.
“I think the casino bill last year just kind of went totally off the rails,” Moore said.
Medicinal marijuana legalization
Another piece of legislation that failed last session was the proposed legalization of marijuana in North Carolina for medicinal use.
The Senate approved with bipartisan support a medical marijuana bill that would have allowed medical marijuana use statewide for people with certain health ailments. But the House did not bring it up for a vote, killing the bill.
On Thursday, Berger expressed interest in reexamining medical marijuana but said the “ball is in the House’s court.”
“I am hopeful that we will see the House take that bill up. I think the votes are there to pass it. I think it’s pretty clear from every survey that I’ve seen of the voters in the state of North Carolina that (it) enjoys the support of well over 60 to 70% of the population,” he said.
This story was originally published February 14, 2024 3:05 PM.
