And They Are Off
Boy, oh boy, our Bible Belt legislators this session are really trying to get gambling into law, all kinds of it. Let’s see, we have? We have S. 444: Interactive Sports Wagering. Bill H. 4176: Gaming Commission (stalled for now). Bill H. 3625: Interactive Sports Wagering and other ones, which have no major progress.
And this one, S. 344, the SC Equine Advancement Act.
Equine means horse-related, and S. 344 is about making it legal for South Carolinians to bet on horse racing through an app on their phone.
Let's Get to What the Bill Proposes to Do
Why?
Let's dive into S. 344 and ask, why do we need this law?
To capture money from wagering.
Create a self‑funded grant stream for the equine industry rather than asking for straight General Fund earmarks.
Propping up and re‑growing a struggling but still sizable equine sector
Words
IMPORTANT — The words in a bill are important because, if passed, they will become the law. What they state, don't state, or are unclear about create room for state regulators to clarify.
"South Carolina Equine Advancement Act," ah, a title designed to generate support for this bill. After all, who doesn't sympathize with horses?
Section 11-61-110: "Advanced deposit account wagering."
Notice the word "wagering" is used instead of "gambling" or "betting"? That's a vocabulary choice that distances the activity from the gambling prohibitions in SC's criminal code.
Wagering and gambling are the same thing.
Per merriam-webster.com: wager noun — something (such as a sum of money) risked on an uncertain event: STAKE something on which bets are laid: GAMBLE
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's a duck.
Sinkholes (Such words may partially or completely negate the stated purpose of the bill.)
Section 11-61-110(1): Advance deposit account wagering does not mean or include historical horse racing, nor any televised, video, or computer screen depicting a video game of chance, or slot machine.
This part acknowledges that someone could confuse ADW with historical horse racing machines (essentially slot machines with a horse-racing veneer), suggesting that the sponsors recognize the conceptual line is thin.
Create a Platform for Future Legislative Action
S. 344 establishes a legal vocabulary that future bills can reference without redefining them. The definitions become building blocks for expansion.
Increase State Government Control
Section 11-61-120: South Carolina Equine Commission Creation
Creates a seven-member commission with perpetual succession, corporate seal, power to sue and be sued, and authority to make bylaws. Chaired by the Director of the Department of Revenue. Two members appointed by the Senate President, two by the House Speaker, and two by the Governor. Four-year terms.
Section 11-61-120: "Department, Agency, Committee, Board" are Money Pit indicators. The commission is all of these things wrapped into one new government body.
"Appointed" signals that politicians choose the people who control this commission.
Section 11-61-130(1): "Perpetual succession", this body exists forever. There is no sunset, no expiration.
Section 11-61-130: Commission Powers and Duties
Grants the commission eleven enumerated powers, and each one transfers decision-making authority from the legislature to the commission.
Taken together, they create a mini-government with the power to write rules, grant or deny licenses, create advisory bodies, enter contracts, conduct investigations, and do "such other things as may be necessary."
Dangerous Words are words that "introduce new areas for legal control and/or action and often open the door to future actions contrary to a bill's original intent." The phrase "such other things as may be necessary" is precisely that.
Section 11-61-170: Equine Industry Development Fund
Establishes the Equine Industry Development Fund, a fund housed at the State Treasurer's office.
Revenue sources — Section 11-61-140(D): On a monthly basis, a license fee of one percent of all wagers made within this State placed through an advance deposit wagering licensee shall be paid to the commission, and an additional annual fee of five percent of all wagers made within this State placed through an advance deposit wagering licensee shall be paid to the Equine Industry Development Fund.
What can this fund be used for? Used to promote and improve the equine industry. The commission determines grant criteria and procedures.
Section 11-61-170(A) states the purpose of the fund is "to provide grants to qualified recipients to finance the eligible costs of qualified projects, and to promote and improve the equine industry in the State." That language is broad enough that almost anything the commission decides could fit under it.
Section 11-61-170(C): The commission "shall establish a grant program utilizing funds in the Equine Industry Development Fund." The commission establishes the criteria to qualify for grants, sets forth the procedures for applying, and "may require any information about the grant applicant that is necessary to properly evaluate the grant proposal."
Wealth Transfer. The money flows from citizens (who wager), through the government (the commission takes its cut), to a private industry (equine grant recipients), and that industry then lobbies the government to keep the money flowing. Each participant has a financial reason to sustain and grow this. Nobody in that loop has a financial incentive to shut it down.
But, the national industry is shrinking. Three straight years of decline, confirmed by Equibase (the industry's own official database): 2022: Total handle down 0.9% from 2021 2023: Down another 3.7% from 2022 2024: Down another 3.35% from 2023. So what exactly is this commission funding? Growth in a declining industry, or a permanent government structure attached to a revenue stream that may never materialize at the projected levels?
Is S. 344 Constitutional?
Pari-mutuel wagering remains illegal in SC. The state's criminal code broadly prohibits gambling. The Constitution's Article XVII, Section 8, specifically disqualifies public officials who gamble from holding office.
So what's going on? Section 11-61-120(A)(1) puts the Director of the Department of Revenue, a state official appointed by the Governor, in the chairman's seat of the Equine Commission. Sections 11-61-120(A)(2) through (4) fill the rest of the seats with appointees picked by the Senate President, the House Speaker, and the Governor. These are public officials.
And what does that board do?
Licenses gambling apps.
Collects gambling fees.
Distributes gambling revenue.
Punishes anyone who gambles outside its system.
That's a gambling operation run by public officials.
Now, the sponsors would argue that there is a difference between administering wagering and engaging in wagering. Maybe that distinction holds up.
But Wait, The Bill Has a Guardrail Clause
Section 11-61-120(D): The commission's authority shall relate only to horse racing as expressly authorized in this chapter and shall not include the authority to expand gambling, nor the authority to approve or regulate historical horse racing, slot machines, video games of chance, and other gambling devices.
That's nice, a clause that forbids the commission from branching out into any other form of gambling.
But this clause won't stop the legislature from overriding it. A future General Assembly can remove subsection (D) with a reform bill, or any amendment added to a similar type of bill, and poof, the guardrail disappears.
Once a law is created, it’s always at risk of getting worse.
Legal Doesn't Mean Freedom
Some freedom-loving Americans frame legalizing horse race betting as expanding personal liberty (as if we have any left).
They will proclaim that adults should decide for themselves without the state playing nanny. People already wager illegally or cross borders to do it in North Carolina or elsewhere. Why block consenting adults from a low-stakes choice that could bring in more money for the state, ya know, help rural communities?
Legalization does not remove government control. It's the government saying, "We'll allow this activity, but only under our rules, with our cut, and our regulators watching." True freedom exists outside state permission structures. Illegal or legal, the government is still controlling the activity.
Also, legalizing gambling normalizes it and causes participation surges, addiction climbs, and the fallout follows like gambling addiction, broken families, crime or debt.
The state then steps in with taxpayer-funded programs to treat the very problems its legalization helped create. It's a continuous cycle: the government creates misbehavior that causes harm, which then serves as the reason the government must step in to fix it.
Final Assessment
S. 344 is a textbook case of what ConservaTruth's Tips for Reading a Bill are designed to expose.
The title misdirects.
The definitions create a new legal vocabulary.
The commission concentrates power in appointed hands.
The fund creates financial dependency.
The criminal penalties enforce a government monopoly.
The guardrail clause promises limits that can be erased by future legislation.
If you don't want gambling creeping into South Carolina, now is the time to speak up against this bill.
Current status: Senate Finance Committee members will discuss and vote on this bill on Feb. 17, 2026. For further updates, visit our social media platforms. The links are located on our Home page in the footer. .
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not constitute legal or professional advice. ConservaTruth assumes no liability for any actions taken based on this content. Readers are encouraged to review the bill text themselves. Read more.
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