New Georgia Poll Sheds Light On Sports Betting Sentiment

It’s 2025 and Georgia is now one of 11 remaining states without a legal sports betting market in the United States. The Peach State is one of the last holdovers — but certainly not because of a lock or appetite from state residents and voters.

Matter of fact, there’s a brand new poll out that gauges sentiment among Georgia locals. Wagering is at the heart of the poll and it shows just how much locals want sports betting in Georgia. Let’s dig into the results, shall we?

Majority Of Georgia Voters Favor Sports Betting

Behind this poll are two reputable institutions — the University of Georgia and Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. Both carry a lot of weight in the Atlanta area so we don’t want to brush off their findings that came courtesy of calls during December 2024. The poll consists of 800 Georgia voters.

Anywho, the poll found that a whopping 63% of voters want legal betting in some shape or form. That’s the top-of-the-line numbers, but even when you dig deeper, all the voting demos favor betting. Gender-wise, males voted 72.9 approved in favor of legalization. Women weren’t as supportive, but a majority 54.2 percent still approved. Among age groups, those between 30 and 44 wanted legalization at a 75 percent rate. Those between 45 and 64 voted for legalization at a 63 percent rate.

Heck, even both party lines were in agreement. The most surprising result was that both Democrats and Republicans were 65 percent in favor of legalization.

So if voters from all demographics want legal betting, why is Georgia still behind the eight ball? Well, that’s a convoluted reason as we explain in the next section.

Why Georgia Has Failed To Legalize

It’s not just voters that have betting interest — so do lawmakers in the state. We count six different attempts at bills trying to legalize sports betting over the past few years. Six! Of course, all failed. But why?

If you look at the most recent attempt, Senate Bill 386, things start getting political. That attempt tried to have betting run entirely by the Georgia Lottery. It passed the Senate 35-15, but then ended up in no man’s land once it got in the House (they didn’t even really talk about it). The issue with SB 386’s demise is two-fold: a long-standing constitutional debate and shifting priorities in the Georgia House.

First, the constitutional mess. As mentioned, SB 386 tried to package sports betting as part of the state lottery, sidestepping the need for a constitutional amendment. Other lawmakers are sharply against that, instead wanting a constitutional amendment for legalization. The latter of which would require two-thirds majority support in the legislature and then a public vote on the ballot.

Because of this rift, the University of Georgia and Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce poll actually raised this question. It found that 78 percent of voters would prefer to decide on legalization at the polls. So there’s that.

That was one issue, but a second was just shifting priorities in the House. New legislators stepped into position during 2024, and frankly? They had bigger fish to fry. Sports betting simply wasn’t a priority compared to other issues during the 2024 legislative session.

But hey, 2025 is a brand new year. The new legislative year begun on January 13. It will run until April 4. So we’ll know in two months whether Georgia lawmakers will stop their bickering and support what voters already want in-state, and that’s legal wagering on sports.

Further Poll Findings Shed Light

The poll asked voters on other things related to sports betting. One that caught our attention is why voters wanted it in the first place. Per the poll, 54 percent of voters said they would be more likely to support legalization efforts if it meant fewer Georgians crossed state lines or used offshore sportsbooks to wager.

Georgia has five neighboring states — Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Two of those states (Alabama and South Carolina) have betting banned, but the other three have booming markets. For Georgians who live near the borders of Florida, Tennessee, or North Carolina, it makes sense to cross state lines to wager and use popular mobile betting apps.

However, the offshore sportsbooks are really where Georgia bettors are flocking to in mass. Since these sites are located in foreign countries — where betting is legal and regulated— they sidestep a lot of regulations in the United States or Georgia. Therefore, these offshore sportsbooks work perfectly fine inside state lines. Matter of fact, these offshore bookies have as good of a product as popular apps like BetMGM.

But the issue is, these offshore sites don’t kickback taxes to the state or Georgia — they keep it all to themselves. This is a massively missed opportunity to fund education programs, as is the case in most legalized sports betting states. In fact, the poll found that 80 percent of Georgia voters wanted gambling revenue to funnel into the education program.

So what’s to make about all of this data? Well, if lawmakers were smart, they’d use the 2025 session to get betting on the ballot AND make it an educational issue. That would be a winning vote inside the state if the poll results are accurate.