A bill that would allow Georgia voters to decide on the fate of sports betting has suffered a setback that may doom any chance of mobile sportsbooks setting up shop in the Peach State anytime soon.
Committee Roadblock
Senate Resolution 131, sponsored by Republican Senators Carden Summers, Billy Hickman, Brandon Beach, and Lee Anderson, would put the voters in charge of deciding whether to add an amendment to the state’s constitution that would permit “the operation and regulation of sports betting and casino gaming activities.”
However, several legislative hurdles must be overcome before that can happen, which include approval by the Georgia Senate’s Committee on Regulated Industries and Utilities. Unfortunately for pro-gaming forces, a vote by a show of hands revealed that the bill had been rejected by a 9-2 margin.
This means the Senate floor will not hear the bill despite the fact that it passed a sports betting bill last year that was ultimately rejected by the lower chamber. The feeling is that the Georgia House of Representatives will not cooperate on any sports betting bills, and until it takes the lead in doing so, the Georgia Senate is no longer interested in advancing sports betting legislation.
“I don’t know if I’m willing to fall on the sword again,” Democratic Sen. David Lucas said during the committee meeting. “The House has not done anything, and we have constantly tried to work it out in various ways on this, and they’ve never taken it up.”
Frustration from Industry Stakeholders
Brandt Iden, vice president of government affairs for Fanatics, spoke on the House’s lack of cooperation after last year’s legislative session saw a sports betting bill advance from the Senate floor before it died in the lower chamber.
“What happened in Georgia was incredibly frustrating and disappointing,” said Iden. “When legislative members in leadership positions make assurances, you expect them to be negotiating in good faith and willing to hold up to their commitments.
“Representative [Marcus] Wiedower delivered to leadership and his caucus everything that was expected of him with this legislation. Yet, when the time came for leadership to hold to their deal, the goalposts weren’t just moved; they removed the entire end zone from the field. Those kinds of hijinks are for schoolchildren on a playground, not serious leaders,” Iden added.
One Last Chance
Senate Bill 208 is another sports betting bill, but it hasn’t gained much traction in the upper chamber. Any bills in the Senate, including SB 208, must be approved by a two-thirds majority and crossed over to the House by March 6th as the session adjourns on April 4th.
The difference between SB 208 from Senate Resolution 131 is that the former does not call for an amendment to the state constitution, which may give it more credibility with the House, should it advance.
One issue not in dispute is that there are plenty of Georgians eager to wager on sports, at least according to John Pappas, a senior advisor at GeoComply, who handles cybersecurity for major sports betting websites and enforces state boundaries for the sites.
“We saw almost 14,500 active accounts in the State of Georgia. So, these are people that could have been potential sports bettors. People who would have wanted to place a bet on a legal site but couldn’t because they were in Georgia,” Pappas said.
Based on the data collected by GeoComply, if sports betting were regulated and licensed in Georgia, it would mean between $110 and $115 million annually in tax revenue.
