Within the first two months since online betting became legal in North Carolina, bettors had already wagered over $1 billion. But not everyone's happy. Bettors also filed about 85 complaints against gambling operators. That’s according to the state attorney general’s office and the state lottery commission.
Joining me now to talk more about it, and other business stories, is Tony Mecia of the Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter for our segment BizWorthy.
Marshall Terry: So, what were some of these complaints about?
Tony Mecia: Marshall, these complaints tended to fall in a number of different areas, mostly having to do with people having their accounts frozen, or maybe they didn't get the promotional credit that they thought they deserved. There were also a lot of complaints about customer service.
I did look at the breakdown by company. Some of the biggest gambling operators also had the most complaints, which sort of stands to reason. FanDuel led the pack, and it was followed by BetMGM and DraftKings.
Terry: So, what's been the response from those gambling operators? And what happens with these complaints now?
Mecia: Well, the gambling operators say they take complaints seriously. I also talked to the attorney general's office and the state lottery commission. They say they take the complaint seriously. They all say they review them. The regulators say they get responses from the companies, they try to get answers for consumers, although they don't mediate the disputes.
The regulators say that they haven't taken any action, that these haven't risen to the level where there's something shady or illegal going on such that the government needs to step in and do something about it. So there are a lot of people looking at it. In many cases, these complaints are resolved.
The gambling companies also point out that 85 complaints— when you have thousands and thousands of people playing — really isn't that big of a number. But, certainly, it's a perspective that some people have who have been doing the online gambling.
Terry: On now to the Stonehaven neighborhood in Southeast Charlotte, where residents are voicing their opposition to a planned development project. What is it, and what are residents saying?
Mecia: Developer Hopper Communities is planning 90, two-story duplexes and triplexes in the Stonehaven neighborhood. This is off Monroe Road. A lot of the neighbors in that neighborhood, as is the case when you have higher-density developments, they're worried about the traffic. We're seeing this a lot more in Charlotte — denser building, duplexes, triplexes.
And one interesting wrinkle, Marshall, is that now a lot of these can just be built without rezoning. So these neighbors in Stonehaven, there's not going to be a hearing in front of the city council. There's not going to be a vote. A lot of these can just be done under the city ordinance. So a lot of residents feel like maybe they don't have as much power or say so in the process as they used to.
Terry: Sticking with development, you report the way Atrium Health is building a new standalone emergency room stands out. How so?
Mecia: Yes. Atrium Health is building a standalone emergency department on Johnston Road in Ballentyne, and it's doing it in a little bit of a different way. It's using prefabricated modules called blocks. That's just a little bit of a different construction method.
Terry: Finally, you report if residents want to find out how Charlotte City Council members voted on past development projects, they might be out of luck. And that's because the city is behind on producing its meeting minutes. Just how far behind, and why?
Mecia: Yeah, Marshall, I looked at this last year. And last August the city was 17 months behind in producing written minutes of its meetings. I checked in again last month, and now it's a full two years behind.
The city does post its videos of the meetings online. People can wade through hours and hours. If you want a searchable written record to find out when there was a discussion of something, or what was decided, or what the vote was, it makes it very, very difficult. The city says that the city clerk's offices had some staffing challenges. That's the same thing they told me last year.
Terry: It is tedious going through those videos. I know. I've done it. I'm sure you have, too.
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