ATLANTA – The state Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation Thursday to legalize sports betting in Georgia, but only after approving a major change in the bill that would require a statewide referendum on the measure.
Under Senate Bill 386, which passed 35-15, the Georgia Lottery Corp. would oversee sports betting, awarding licenses to 16 online sports betting providers.
Five licenses would go to Atlanta’s pro sports teams: the Braves, Falcons, Hawks, Dream, and Atlanta United. The Augusta National Golf Club, the Professional Golf Association (PGA), and the Atlanta Motor Speedway would receive one license each.
Seven licenses would be open to sports betting providers through an application process overseen by lottery officials. The lottery corporation also would receive one license.
The bill calls for 20% of the adjusted gross revenues derived from sports betting to go toward Georgia’s HOPE Scholarships and pre-kindergarten programs.
The bill’s supporters argued sports betting is happening already in Georgia without any ability for the state to regulate the industry or obtain tax revenue from betting. If legalized, sports betting would provide at least $100 million a year to HOPE and pre-k.
“It is a new funding source,” said Sen. Harold Jones, D-Augusta. “We are leaving a new source of funding on the table if we don’t move forward.”
The original bill, sponsored by Sen. Clint Dixon, R-Buford, would legalize sports betting without taking the issue to Georgia voters in the form of a constitutional amendment. Changing the state’s constitution requires a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate, supermajorities sports betting supporters have been unable to muster during past legislative sessions.
But legalizing sports betting should require a constitutional amendment, just as the Georgia Lottery did when the General Assembly approved the lottery back in the early 1990s, said Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens.
Cowsert, who is sponsoring separate sports betting legislation that would require a constitutional change, amended Dixon’s bill on the Senate floor Thursday to mandate a constitutional amendment before sports betting could become law in Georgia.
Cowsert said sports betting was never contemplated in the 1992 referendum Georgia voters approved creating the lottery.
“There’s no way the people of Georgia … believed it would authorize the General Assembly to say sports betting is a lottery game,” he said. “To pass this bill without making it contingent on the voters is disingenuous at best.”
Senators approved Cowsert’s amendment 30-17 before passing the underlying bill. The legislation now moves to the state House of Representatives.
ATLANTA – A state Senate committee overwhelmingly approved legislation Tuesday legalizing sports betting in Georgia.
Under Senate Bill 386, which the Senate Economic Development and Tourism Committee passed 8-2, the Georgia Lottery Corp. would award 16 licenses to sports betting operators.
Five licenses would go to Atlanta’s pro sports teams: the Braves, Falcons, Hawks, Dream, and Atlanta United. The Augusta National Golf Club, the Professional Golf Association (PGA), and the Atlanta Motor Speedway would receive one license each.
Seven licenses would be open to sports betting operators through an application process overseen by lottery officials. The lottery corporation also would receive one license.
Twenty percent of the adjusted gross revenues derived from sports betting would go toward Georgia’s HOPE Scholarships and pre-kindergarten programs.
The bill would legalize sports betting without requiring a constitutional amendment. Whether bringing sports betting to Georgia without amending the state’s constitution is legal has been a subject of debate among lawmakers for several years.
A second sports betting measure that does require a constitutional amendment cleared the Senate Regulated Industries & Utilities Committee during the first week of this year’s legislative session.
On Monday, representatives of the Metro Atlanta Chamber and PrizePicks, a daily fantasy sports operator, spoke in favor of the bill.
Nick Fernandez, director of government affairs for the chamber, said the bill would generate an estimated $100 million annually for HOPE and pre-k.
Stuart Wilkinson of PrizePicks told the committee adding fantasy sports to the mix would add another $35 million.
Several spokesmen for faith-based organizations spoke out in opposition to the bill.
“Gambling is basically legalized fraud,” said Mike Griffin, public affairs representative for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board. “You can’t win. The industry can’t lose.”
“The disastrous effects of problem gambling are well known and well documented,” added Mack Parnell, executive director of the Georgia Faith and Freedom Coalition.
Sen. Clint Dixon, R-Buford, the bill’s chief sponsor, said it includes provisions aimed at preventing problem gambling, including ads educating Georgians about the potential pitfalls of betting on sports and “self-limit” tools bettors could use to cap the amount they spend on bets.
The bill has bipartisan backing. Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler, D-Stone Mountain, is among the cosponsors.
The legislation now heads to the Senate Rules Committee, which will decide whether to put it before the full Senate.
ATLANTA – A second sports betting bill was introduced into the Georgia Senate this week with bipartisan backing from the chamber’s leadership.
Senate Bill 386 would authorize sports betting in Georgia under the oversight of the Georgia Lottery Corp. The bill would provide for both online betting on sports and retail betting at sites operated by licensees who would pay $1 million each.
The measure is being backed by Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who presides over the Senate, as well as Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler, D-Stone Mountain.
A coalition of Atlanta’s professional sports teams also is getting behind the bill.
“The Braves are excited about the opportunity to bring mobile sports betting to Georgia,” said Derek Schiller, president and CEO of the Atlanta Braves. “Over the last several years, we have watched closely as 38 other states have legalized mobile sports betting and collected billions of dollars in tax revenue.”
Under the bill, 15% of the revenue generated by sports betting in Georgia would go to benefit the state’s HOPE Scholarships and pre-kindergarten programs.
Georgia lawmakers have debated sports betting bills for several years, but none have managed to get through the General Assembly. Jones introduced a sports betting measure back in 2020 while serving as a member of the state Senate.
“Sports betting is an easy way to pick up $80 million to $100 million (in tax revenue),” the lieutenant governor said Wednesday.
Senate Bill 386, introduced by Sen. Clint Dixon, R-Buford, would not require a constitutional amendment to become law. A second measure, sponsored by Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, would require changing the state constitution.
The Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee, which Cowsert chairs, approved his bill during the first week of this year’s legislative session, but it has yet to reach the Senate floor.
Cowsert and others have argued that legalizing sports betting in Georgia requires a constitutional amendment, which then would land on the statewide ballot for voters to decide.
However, constitutional changes need the support of two-thirds of the state House and Senate, a more difficult obstacle than Dixon’s bill, which would need only simple majorities of each chamber to pass.
ATLANTA – A Georgia Senate committee passed a sports betting bill Tuesday on just the second day of this year’s legislative session, kicking off a debate that’s likely to last all 40 days under the Gold Dome.
The Regulated Industries & Utilities Committee voted 8-3 to let Georgians bet on sports either online or at remote terminals or “kiosks.”
The state would retain 20% of the gross revenue from most sports bets and 25% from “high-profit” bets including live bets placed during games. The money would go toward various state programs to be spelled out in a separate constitutional amendment.
Senate Bill 172 was available for consideration so early in the 2024 session because it was introduced last year, the first of a two-year legislative term. The Senate tabled it last year, which left it alive to be taken up again this year.
“This has been a long process,” Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, the committee’s chairman and the bill’s chief sponsor, said Tuesday. “It’s been multiple years we’ve been dealing with these gambling issues.”
Cowsert said about three dozen states have legalized sports betting since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2018 allowed it to expand beyond a handful of states – including Nevada – where it already was legal.
Georgia lawmakers have debated a multitude of sports betting bills since, but nothing has made it through the General Assembly.
Cowsert’s bill would establish a seven-member sports betting commission authorized to grant at least six licenses for sports betting operations. He said Atlanta’s pro sports teams, which formed a coalition several years ago to push for sports betting, could potentially set up kiosks in their home stadiums or arenas.
The legislation includes provisions aimed at protecting bettors from fraudulent sports betting operators as well as provisions to help problem gamblers avoid crippling financial losses.
The legislation is what is known in General Assembly parlance as an “enabling” bill, designed to fill in the details of an accompanying constitutional amendment.
Some lawmakers introduced legalized gambling bills last year designed not to require changing the Georgia Constitution, but whether that’s legal has been the topic of a running debate. Constitutional amendments require two-thirds votes of the state House and Senate, while other bills only need simple majorities to pass.
Any constitutional amendment that gets through the legislature then must win approval on the statewide ballot to become law.
“I don’t see anything to fear from a constitutional amendment,” Cowsert said. “It’s the right thing to do. Let the people decide when you’re making a major policy change.”
A couple of committee members questioned passing an enabling bill before its accompanying constitutional amendment has been drafted.
Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, the committee’s vice chairman, said he will introduce a sports betting constitutional amendment later in the session.
“We’re not going anywhere with it without a (constitutional amendment),” Summers assured his committee colleagues.
Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta, also is planning to introduce a constitutional amendment into the Senate that would let voters decide whether to legalize casino gambling and pari-mutuel betting on horse racing in addition to sports betting.
ATLANTA – After years of failed efforts to get legalized gambling through the General Assembly, political observers could hardly be faulted for not betting on 2024 to be different.
But if Las Vegas were setting odds on the three options that have generated the most discussion under the Gold Dome, sports betting would be the clear favorite over casinos and horse racing.
“Sports betting is something that should be an easy lift,” said Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who introduced a sports betting bill back in 2020 when he was a member of the state Senate. “It’s probably the most popular of the three arenas of gambling we’ve talked about.”
Sports betting appeared to get the jump on casinos and horse racing during this year’s legislative session when former Georgia Chief Justice Harold Melton wrote in a legal opinion that sports betting could become law in Georgia without changing the state’s constitution.
Melton deemed sports betting essentially a lottery game, meaning it could be overseen by the Georgia Lottery Corp., which voters already incorporated into the constitution in a 1992 statewide referendum.
Not everyone agreed. Some lawmakers favored going with a constitutional amendment to give Georgia voters a chance to weigh in on whether they want sports betting. An alternative Senate measure was introduced to put sports betting in the constitution.
But in the end, the Senate defeated both measures, forcing supporters to wait until 2024.
Jones, who presides over the Senate, said he expects his legislative chamber to take the lead on sports betting again when the General Assembly convenes in January.
Once again, the Metro Atlanta Chamber will be a key backer of the measure. The chamber works closely with Atlanta’s four professional sports teams, which have banded together to support sports betting during recent legislative sessions.
Marshall Guest, the chamber’s senior vice president, said 38 states have legalized sports betting since a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision authorized states to take that step. The list includes the neighboring states of Tennessee and North Carolina.
“This legislation would drive fan engagement for our state’s professional sports teams,” Guest wrote in an email to Capitol Beat.
Guest and others also pointed to the tax revenue the state could generate from sports betting, which under all of the various legislative proposals that have been considered would go to the Georgia’s hugely popular HOPE Scholarships and Pre-Kindergarten programs.
State Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, a longtime proponent of legalized gambling, said the tax benefits of sports betting are a good reason for lawmakers to go with the constitutional amendment approach.
A constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds vote of the state House of Representatives and Senate before it can go to the voters, a more difficult obstacle than bills that only need a simple majority to pass.
But Stephens said emphasizing where the tax money would go if sports passing comes to Georgia could be enough of a winning argument in an election year to secure those two-thirds majorities.
“If we can get this to the floor, it’s going to put people in a position of voting for or against HOPE and Pre-K,” he said.
Another option lawmakers have considered during recent legislative sessions is combining sports betting, casinos, and horse racing into a single constitutional amendment so voters could decide whether to legalize all three at one time.
Supporters of that approach have argued both casinos and horse racing would create more jobs than sports betting, which would be conducted primarily or exclusively online.
Advocates of horse racing have pitched its potential as an economic boon for rural Georgia because of the hay farms and racehorse training facilities it would require. Casino backers have cited examples of destination resort casinos in other states that are reaping huge profits.
But Stephens said pushing all three forms of legalized gambling in Georgia at once is probably too much of a reach.
“I would rather not to try to eat the elephant all at one time,” he said.
Even if sports betting ends up getting the emphasis during the upcoming legislative session, supporters of casinos and horse racing are willing to wait. Change takes time in Georgia, as was exemplified by the years it took Sunday sales of alcohol to pass in the Peach State.
“It’s going to happen,” said Rick Lackey, an Atlanta-based real estate developer who has backed several proposed casino resorts. “It’s just a matter of when.”
