ATLANTA – The state Senate began debate Tuesday on legislation that would legalize betting on sports in Georgia – including horse racing – without the potential pitfall of requiring a constitutional amendment.
Senate Bill 57 would allow sports betting both online and in person at kiosks that could be located inside a range of businesses, including sports venues. The program would be overseen by the Georgia Lottery Corp.
“By running this through the lottery, there’s not a constitutional amendment required,” Sen. Billy Hickman, R-Statesboro, the bill’s chief sponsor, told members of the Senate Economic Development & Tourism Committee Tuesday. “Sports betting is deemed a lottery game.”
Like a second sports betting bill introduced in the state House of Representatives on Monday, the Senate measure would not require a constitutional amendment to become law, based on a recent legal opinion from former Georgia Chief Justice Harold Melton that a constitutional change is unnecessary.
Constitutional amendments must gain a two-thirds majority vote in the Georgia House and Senate, a requirement that has tripped up past efforts to get the legislation through the General Assembly.
What’s different about the Senate legislation is it would legalize all types of sports betting – except high school games and other contests involving competitors under age 18.
It would do that by requiring “fixed-odds” rather than “pari-mutuel” betting. With fixed-odds betting, the odds a bettor places on a sports contest don’t change as the volume of bets increases, Hickman said.
The Georgia Constitution specifically prohibits casino gambling and pari-mutuel betting but not fixed-odds betting, added Josh Belinfante, a lawyer representing the Georgia Horse Racing Coalition. Thus, the Senate bill does not need a constitutional amendment, Belinfante said.
Under the Senate bill, 20% of the adjusted gross income derived from sports betting would go to the Georgia Lottery Corp. to benefit education. Hickman said that could potentially bring in $300 million to $400 million a year.
Citing an economic impact study released last year, Hickman said sports betting could inject $1 billion annually into Georgia’s economy and create more than 8,500 jobs, many in rural areas of the state.
“That’s more jobs than Chick-fil-A has in Georgia, more jobs than Lockheed has in Georgia,” said Hickman, a horse racing enthusiast who owns thoroughbred horses.
But the bill’s opponents questioned its potential economic benefits. Peggy McCarthey, a board member of the nonprofit Georgia Pet Coalition, said horse tracks across the U.S. are no longer profitable unless they’re co-located with casinos.
“Public interest in horse racing is small and getting smaller,” she said. “Since 2000, 41 tracks have closed. Attendance is down.”
John Kindt, a former business professor at the University of Illinois who recently retired to Georgia, said legalizing any form of sports betting in the Peach State would require a constitutional amendment. He cited a recent opinion written by former U.S. Rep. John Barrow, a Democrat from Athens.
“Gambling statutes are going to lose in court,” Kindt said.
Mike Griffin, public affairs representative for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, who has appeared many times before legislative committees opposing legalized gambling, said failing to require a constitutional amendment would mean bypassing a statewide referendum on the issue.
“It needs to be voted on by the people … if there’s going to be any additional gambling,” he said.
The committee did not vote on the Senate bill Tuesday. Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta, the committee’s chairman, who has sponsored horse racing bills in past legislative sessions, said he expects a vote next week.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The state Senate passed legislation Monday that would impose mandatory minimum sentences for those found guilty of gang recruitment activities in Georgia.
The bill would require judges to impose prison sentences of at least five years on those convicted of recruiting gang members. It would prevent those sentenced with the crime from having their sentences suspended or serving them through probation.
The legislation would require tougher penalties for those who recruit someone under age 17 or someone with a disability to a gang, requiring at least a 10-year sentence.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has made cracking down on gangs an important part of his legislative agenda this year.
“Building on his promises, the governor, partnering with the attorney general and the lieutenant governor … seeks to continue to crack down on criminal street gangs by giving prosecutors the tools to go after known gang members,” said Sen. Bo Hatchett, R-Cornelia, the bill’s chief sponsor and one of Kemp’s Senate floor leaders.
“Although efforts to combat criminal street gang activities have had a tremendous impact throughout the state of Georgia, more must be done to keep our children away from a life of crime.”
The bill would allow judges to avoid mandatory minimum sentences in some circumstances. Judges could impose reduced or suspended sentences if an accused person provides “substantial assistance” to help identify or convict another person of gang recruitment – in other words, a plea bargain.
Democrats opposed the bill. Sen. Harold Jones II, D-Augusta, a former solicitor general in Richmond County, argued it could have the unintended consequence of reducing sentences for those guilty of serious crimes and putting tough penalties on those convicted of relatively minor crimes.
A low-level gang member is unlikely to have useful information that help would lead to the identification or conviction of a senior gang member, Jones said.
“The person who doesn’t know anything … they go to jail five years [because] they can’t tell on anybody. … They have nothing to offer,” he said.
On the flip side, someone who has committed a serious crime might have a great deal of information that could help convict someone else, thereby garnering a hardened criminal a reduced sentence, Jones said.
“What we’re going to be doing is unleashing persons who probably are more culpable,” he said.
Jones also suggested lawmakers should trust judges and prosecutors to make good decisions.
Almost all Senate Republicans voted for the bill, which passed 31-22. However, GOP Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, crossed party lines to vote against it.
“We have far too many plea bargains in this state, and this will only increase the amount,” Moore told Capitol Beat just after Monday’s vote. “Plea bargains allow the innocent to get improper justice and the guilty to get less than deserved. This is not the way to solve street gang crimes.”
The bill will now move to the state House of Representatives for consideration.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Legislation introduced into the Georgia House of Representatives Monday marks the latest effort to legalize sports betting in Georgia.
House Bill 380, sponsored by state Rep. Marcus Wiedower, R-Watkinsville, is being supported by the Metro Atlanta Chamber.
“This legislation would legalize responsible sports betting in Georgia and generate additional revenue for education under the Georgia Lottery,” said Marshall Guest, the chamber’s senior vice president of public policy and public affairs.”
We look forward to working with Governor Brian Kemp, Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones, House Speaker Jon Burns, and the Georgia General Assembly to secure this huge win for education investment in our state.”
Like sports betting legislation floated in past years in the General Assembly, Wiedower’s bill calls for sports betting to be overseen by the Georgia Lottery Corp.
Unlike previous sports betting bills, the new measure would allow for two types of sports betting licenses. It calls for awarding up to 16 Type 1 licenses to companies that would provide online sports betting services.
A second variety of licenses – known as Type 2 – would go to brick-and-mortar businesses in Georgia that would offer in-person sports betting. Sports betting legislation in past years has been limited strictly to online betting.
Licensees would pay 15% of their adjusted gross incomes to the state in the form of a “privilege tax” that would be set aside to help fund education in Georgia.
The bill sets out penalties for violators and includes provisions requiring companies involved in sports betting to offer programs to help problem gamblers.
Meanwhile, a second sports betting bill introduced into the Georgia Senate earlier this month is scheduled to be heard Tuesday in the Senate Economic Development & Tourism Committee.
The metro chamber’s endorsement of the House bill comes after a coalition of Atlanta’s professional sports teams – the Braves, Falcons, Hawks, and Atlanta United – led the fight to legalize sports betting in Georgia during the last two years.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – A Georgia Senate committee unanimously approved a bill Monday that would codify a ban on the use of TikTok on state-owned devices.
The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, would codify Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s directive last year aimed at TikTok, a highly popular video hosting service that runs user-submitted videos.
“The original impetus was going back to national security concerns and the [Chinese Community Party] having access to state government data,” Anavitarte told members of the Senate Veterans, Military and Homeland Security Committee.
TikTok is owned by a Chinese company, Byte Dance, and there is concern that its ties to the Chinese government could expose sensitive state data to a foreign government.
More than 30 states have similar bans in place, Anavitarte said.
The TikTok ban would not apply to personal devices, just those purchased by the state. The bill would also make exceptions for law enforcement, cybersecurity research and development, and judicial and legislative proceedings.
The bill would extend to other platforms owned by “scrutinized companies,” those operated by or operating in a country that is considered a foreign adversary. These would likely include WeChat, which is owned by Tencent Holdings, another Chinese company, and Telegram, which was founded in Russia but is now headquartered in Dubai.
After Kemp sent his memo last year, the University System of Georgia directed its 26 colleges and universities to prohibit the use of TikTok, WeChat and Telegram on state-owned devices, including mobile phones and laptops, according to a December statement issued by Assistant Vice Chancellor Kristina Torres.
However, Anavitarte said Monday the intention of his bill is not to ban TikTok on university campuses.
The new legislation would also require the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency to create and post on its website a list of foreign adversaries, as defined by federal regulations.
The bill will now head to the Senate floor for a vote.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney
ATLANTA – Only portions of a grand jury’s final report on then-President Donald Trump’s alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia will be released to the public, a Fulton County judge ruled Monday.
In an eight-page order, Fulton Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney declared that the nature of the special grand jury investigation raised due process issues for those among Trump and his associates who might be indicted following the conclusion of the probe.
There were no lawyers advocating for any targets of the investigation,” McBurney wrote. “Potential future defendants were not able to present evidence outside the scope of what the district attorney asked them.
“They could not call their own witnesses who might rebut what other state’s witnesses had said and they had no ability to present mitigating evidence. Put differently, there was very limited due process in this process for those who might now be named as indictment worthy in the final report.”
Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis empaneled the special purpose grand jury early last year to investigate whether Trump and/or others unlawfully interfered in Georgia’s election results.
A widely publicized aspect of those efforts was a phone call Republican Trump placed to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in January 2021 urging him to “find” 11,780 votes, the margin Trump needed to carry Georgia’s 16 electoral votes. Raffensperger refused to cooperate, and Congress certified Democrat Joe Biden the winner in Georgia a few days later.
Willis will use the special purpose grand jury’s findings to inform her decision whether to empanel a grand jury to consider whether to indict the former president and/or any of his associates on criminal charges.
Lawyers for a coalition of media outlets filed a motion asking for the entire final report to be released. A hearing was held last month, during which Willis sought to keep the report private in order not to jeopardize the rights of potential future defendants to a fair trial.
While McBurney’s ruling Monday will keep most of the report under wraps for now, the judge ruled that three portions of the document may be released later this week.
“These three portions include the introduction and conclusion to the final report, as well as Section VIII, in which the special purpose grand jury discusses its concern that some witnesses may have lied under oath during their testimony to the grand jury,” he wrote. “Because the grand jury does not identify those witnesses, that conclusion may be publicly disclosed at this time.”
McBurney ruled that the material he is allowing to be made public will be released on Thursday.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
