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Georgia sports betting seems to be gaining momentum with several state lawmakers so far this year.
Georgia lawmakers attempted to legalize sports betting in 2021, but weren’t able to push a bill through the Georgia House of Representatives. Members of the Georgia Senate passed bill SB 142 by a vote of 32-17 in March 2021. The bill would have legalized Georgia sports betting and put it under the purveyance of the Georgia Lottery. However, it stalled out in the House and never received a vote.
Constitutional amendment only hope for Georgia sports betting?
Several Georgia legislators are now supporting a new tactic. Rather than attempting to pass a bill through both the Senate and the House, several lawmakers are pitching the idea of a constitutional amendment for state voters to approve or deny in the November 2022 general election.
Georgia State Rep. Ron Stephens (R-Savannah) recently penned a guest opinion column for the Bryan County News, in which he stated his desire to spearhead a constitutional amendment to allow the Georgia Lottery to handle sports betting bill.
“With the rising popularity of sports gaming, especially with the rising popularity of the National Football League, many states have legalized the practice. Even some of the biggest sports wagering companies are listed on major stock exchanges. With this being the 30th anniversary of the lottery vote creating the HOPE Scholarship, more than 2 million Georgians have lifted themselves up thru a higher education and technical college careers. More than 1.6 million families received pre-K head starts. We will take up sports gaming in the days to come to close the gap with HOPE and pre k. Bottom line, this will be another lottery game,” he wrote in the column.
Sports betting tax revenues to support state education
Most Georgia sports betting bills have called for sports betting tax revenues to support the state’s HOPE scholarships, a program created in 1993 to award students attending eligible state public and private schools with financial assistance, and pre-kindergarten programs.
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge), spoke on the matter in January during his annual pre-General Assembly press conference, according to White County News. Ralston supported the idea of a going to the voters to approve a constitutional amendment to legalize sports betting, as all other avenues of legalization have failed in the state legislature so far.
According to Dave Williams of The Northeast Georgian, the legislators could also attempt to lump sports betting, casino gambling and pari-mutuel betting on horse racing in a single constitutional amendment question for Georgia voters in the general election.
If a constitutional amendment question is approved for the 2022 November general election ballot and approved by state voters, Georgia legislators would then have to work out the specific sports betting details (or casino and horse racing, if also included in the question) before it could be launched.
This likely would result in a sports betting launch sometime in 2023.
Robert is an expert on sports betting in the United States, specifically the legalization process and regulation surrounding the industry.
