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This weekend, Georgia Tech vs. Georgia State meet in college football. This isn’t a rivalry the likes of Georgia vs. Georgia Tech, but it’s an emerging one between in-state programs.
College football betting has extra eyes on this game after Tech shockingly defeated Florida State in week 0. But here’s the thing: 38 states across the country will have some type of opportunity to bet on this matchup — that doesn’t include Georgia though. Residents of the state remain barred from betting despite countless efforts to change that.
We don’t have exact data, but we wouldn’t be shocked to learn that Georgia has failed to pass more bills for legal sports betting than any other state. The number of attempts to get this through the door in the last few years is staggering.
That’s why we wanted to try to connect the dots. How and why has Georgia failed to legalized sports betting so many times? It only feels right to do so now as football is back in the mix — a sport this state lives and breathes.
Failed Attempt After Failed Attempt
Ever since the Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in 2018, a form of legislation for sports betting has been floated in the Peach State almost every single year. This is contrary to many states in the South, which at first, almost overwhelmingly rejected the idea of betting on games. Many of those states have flipped opinions and legalized — Tennessee and North Carolina, come to mind. Others like Alabama remain in deep opposition. Georgia, though, finds themselves somewhere in the middle.
By our count, there have been six different Georgia bills for betting:
- Senate Bill 57
- House Bill 380
- Senate Resolution 140
- Senate Resolution 135
- House Bill 237
- Senate Bill 386
As you can see, the interest and appetite is there — from policymakers and residents alike. As back as 2022, a poll found 45.6% of likely voters favored making online betting on sports legal in the state and 42.6% opposed with 11.8 answering “don’t know.” The support may not be overwhelming in the historically conservative state, but it’s still there — unlike betting in California, which voted against it in great numbers on an official ballot that same year.
But back to the bills, why did they fail? SB 386 was the most recent one, however, this one actually ended up dying quicker than the last ones. You would think that would hint to the issue actually losing favor among politicians rather than gaining it. That’s true to a certain extent, but the reasons are even deeper.
Industry insiders believe the issue died a quicker, more painful death this year for two reasons: a difference in opinions on the need for a constitutional amendment and some House leadership challenges. Let’s dig into each cause both will need to turn for this thing to pass on 2025 or onward.
Let’s start with the constitution part. At first, the original proposal by Sen. Clint Dixon set up Georgia sports betting as a lottery game — which is not unlike what some other states do. Sen. Bill Cowsert, however, countered by saying the
issue requires a constitutional amendment and added the stipulation on the Senate floor. So which is it? Constitutional amendment or not?
You would think that former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold Melton saying gaming expansion does not need a constitutional amendment, as he did earlier this year, would settle it. But you’d be wrong. The debate raged on, and because of it, infighting between the Democrats and Republicans simmered. That led to another issue: a lack of bipartisan agreement.
If you’re going to get a bill passed on something like this, you want bipartisan support. This year, at least, that was not the case. It was the Republicans that made it more of their issue. Democrats, meanwhile, lost support for it. When one party ends up influencing a bill a little too much, it’s much more likely to get caught up in political affiliation hell where the opposite side doesn’t want to support it because their fingerprints aren’t on it. That’s exactly what happened here.
Adding fuel to the fire this year was the addition of House Higher Education Committee Chair Rep. Chuck Martin. Quite frankly, Martin and the committee just didn’t act on this as fast as previous predecessors did.
Get this, the Senate passed the sports betting bill, 35-15, on Feb. 1. The House though? They didn’t discuss the issue until March 12 and didn’t vote on it until March 29. The waiting game didn’t help get this bill pushed along like it has to in order to pass from both sides.
It’s too bad too because the bill was pretty friendly to all parties involved. The Senate proposal earmarked 16 licenses for online sports betting — making for a competitive marketplace that surely would’ve attracted all the big platforms like BetMGM, DraftKings, and so on. Moreover, the bill had a 25% tax on sports gambling revenue, a healthy amount without going overboard like sports betting in New York and even Illinois now.
So what now? Welp, you hope the House committee is more competent in 2025 and Democrats play ball a little bit more. You’ll need equal support from both sides to finally legalize Georgia sports betting.
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