South Carolina Betting

There is no legal sports betting in South Carolina, online or in person, and the list of what is lawful instead is very short: the state lottery and charitable games. There is no pari-mutuel racing, no racing commission, no licensed track, no tribal casino and no gambling regulator beyond the Lottery Commission. The state constitution reserves lotteries to the State, and the three measures that would change any of this are all sitting in committee.

The Constitutional Frame

"SECTION 7. Lotteries; bingo; raffles. Only the State may conduct lotteries, and these lotteries must be conducted in the manner that the General Assembly provides by law… The game of bingo, when conducted by charitable, religious, or fraternal organizations exempt from federal income taxation or when conducted at recognized annual state and county fairs, is not considered a lottery prohibited by this section. A raffle, if provided for by general law and conducted by a nonprofit organization for charitable… purposes, is not a lottery prohibited by this section." — South Carolina Constitution, Article XVII, Section 7

"Only the State may conduct lotteries" is the operative phrase, and the implementing statute treats the authorisations as exhaustive. S.C. Code §33-57-100(A) provides that "A lottery or raffle of any type whatsoever is unlawful unless it is authorized by the following: (1) Chapter 150, Title 59, the Education Lottery; (2) Article 24, Chapter 21, Title 12, Charitable Bingo; or (3) Chapter 57, Title 33, Nonprofit Raffles for Charitable Purposes." Three items, and nothing else.

Whether that constitutional provision legally requires an amendment before sports betting could be authorised is a question this page will not answer, because it could not be answered from a primary source: no South Carolina court decision and no Attorney General opinion construing the section against sports betting could be located. What can be said is that the text is there, that the implementing statute treats the three authorised forms as closed, and that the pending bills are drafted as ordinary bills rather than as joint resolutions proposing an amendment. Treat it as unsettled rather than as settled law in either direction.

The Criminal Statutes

The section that actually reaches a sportsbook is §16-19-130:

"SECTION 16-19-130. Betting, pool selling, bookmaking and the like prohibited. Any person within this State who: (1) Engages in betting at any race track, pool selling or bookmaking, with or without writing, at any time or place; … (3) Records or registers bets or wagers or sells pools or makes books, with or without writing, upon the result of any (a) trial or contest of skill, speed or power of endurance of man or beast, (b) political nomination, appointment or election or (c) lot, chance, casualty, unknown or contingent event whatsoever; … Shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court." — S.C. Code §16-19-130

Note the breadth of paragraph (3)(c): "lot, chance, casualty, unknown or contingent event whatsoever" is wide enough on its face to reach an event contract. Section 16-19-10, on setting up lotteries, carries a mandatory fine of one thousand dollars and imprisonment for one year and treats each violation as a separate offence. Section 16-19-40 covers gaming at listed premises. The social-game exemption in §16-19-60 is narrower than its reputation: it covers club members gathering for games of tiles, cards or dice in a private residence, but only where "there is no betting, wagering, or gambling of any kind".

No Racing, and No Tribal Casino

A full-text search of the South Carolina Code for pari-mutuel returns a single match, and that match is a definition excluding it. The Education Lottery Act defines a lottery game as a game of chance approved by the General Assembly "but excluding keno, pari-mutuel betting, and casino gambling as defined in this section", and defines pari-mutuel betting as "a method or system of wagering on actual races including races involving horses or dogs at tracks". There is nothing to license and no commission to license it, which is why no advance-deposit wagering exists here either.

Tribal gaming does not change the picture, because state law applies to it. Section 27-16-110(A) provides that "Except as specifically provided in the federal implementing legislation and this chapter, all laws, ordinances, and regulations of South Carolina and its political subdivisions govern the conduct of gambling or wager by the Tribe on and off the Reservation." The chapter entitles the Tribe to two charitable-game licences from the Department of Revenue, usable at two locations only, and permits electronic play devices on the Reservation "to the same extent that the devices are authorized by state law" — which, given §33-57-100(C)(1), is not at all.

Minimum Age

Eighteen, for the one product that has an age. S.C. Code §59-150-210(D) provides that "Lottery game tickets or shares must not be sold to persons under eighteen years of age". Section 59-150-250 makes both selling to and knowingly purchasing under age a misdemeanour. The South Carolina Education Lottery states the rule on its own site: "You must be 18 years of age or older to play the games of the South Carolina Education Lottery."

What Is Pending

Three measures, none of them moving. H.3625, the South Carolina Sports Wagering Act, was prefiled on 12 December 2024 and referred to Ways and Means on 14 January 2025; the rest of its history is sponsors being added. It would declare sports wagering lawful, create a Sports Wagering Commission and add a new §16-19-135 as a safe harbour from the sections above. S.444, the Senate companion, was introduced on 12 March 2025 and referred to Labor, Commerce and Industry. H.4176, a casino-licensing bill, has travelled furthest of any South Carolina gambling measure: reported out of Ways and Means on 30 April 2025 with a majority favourable report and a minority unfavourable one, continued on 7 May 2025, debate adjourned on 21 January 2026, and recommitted to Ways and Means on 28 January 2026. A full-text search of the session's legislation for sports wagering returns only those three. For the record, H.4064 is not a sports-betting bill in either the current or the preceding session; in this one it is a resolution congratulating a high-school wrestling team.

Prediction Markets

No South Carolina regulator or Attorney General action could be found; a site search of the Attorney General's website for Kalshi returned no results. There is, however, live private litigation, and it should not be mistaken for state enforcement. South Carolina Gambling Recovery LLC v. Kalshi Inc, 8:25-cv-12859 in the District of South Carolina, was filed on 7 October 2025 and consolidated with a companion case on 10 October 2025. The party list includes Robinhood Derivatives LLC, Robinhood Markets Inc, Webull Corporation and Susquehanna entities, and the case was still active in July 2026. It is a private gambling-loss recovery action under §32-1-10, which lets a person who lost fifty dollars or more at play sue to recover it within three months. The State is not a party, and no state action has been taken, which is what the grey-market label records.

Responsible Gambling

South Carolina does fund a helpline, out of unclaimed lottery prizes. Section 59-150-230 directs that a portion of unclaimed prize money be allocated to the state behavioural health department or to an affiliate of the National Council on Problem Gambling "for the prevention and treatment of compulsive gambling disorder and educational programs related to that disorder, including a gambling hotline". The lottery's responsible-play page gives the number as "SC Gambling Helpline 1-877-452-5155", states that it is managed by the behavioural health department's Office of Substance Use Services, and also lists the national line 1-800-522-4700.