Georgia Lawmakers Fail to Progress Sports Betting Bill for Seventh Straight Year

In what has grow to be a well-recognized story in Georgia – for the seventh consecutive 12 months – lawmakers have as soon as once more didn’t make progress in passing a invoice that may result in a vote to legalize sports activities betting.

All efforts to ship a constitutional modification to voters collapsed. Neither the modified legislative movement nor the required framework invoice superior to a vote within the state Home earlier than the deadline handed final week.

The information was a setback for the movement’s backers, which included overwhelming assist from lots of Atlanta’s skilled sports activities groups and main enterprise consortiums. Regardless of their assist, the proposition confronted stern opposition throughout the state legislature.

Georgia policymakers’ obvious unwillingness to entertain the thought of legalization is in stark distinction to states similar to Missouri and Michigan, that are reaping the rewards of its surging sports activities betting and iGaming tax revenues.

Opponents of legalization have raised fears, backed by current information, that legalizing sports activities betting would open the door to elevated playing habit charges, significantly amongst youthful gamblers within the state.

Nevertheless, the political pushback mirrors different states like Texas and Minnesota, the place constitutional headwinds additionally curtail any development.

One other attainable consider Georgia’s ongoing wrestle to maneuver the problem ahead is because of an absence of consensus on how the business needs to be regulated.

Right here, the obvious divide stems from a debate about how ensuing tax revenues have been more likely to be allotted, with advocates pushing laborious to fund key instructional applications like pre-kindergarten and HOPE scholarships.

A supporter of the trigger, Republican State Rep. Marcus Wiedower mentioned: “I consider strongly – and Georgians by extensive margins agree with me – that this modification is not going to solely herald much-needed income to coach our youngest learners but in addition present client protections that don’t exist in as we speak’s black market,”

For Georgians, the failure of its lawmakers to progress the problem towards a vote to legalize betting will now have to attend till the subsequent legislative session in 2026. However, campaigners stay upbeat {that a} referendum on the subject may nonetheless make the 2026 poll, which might current a possibility for voters to approve the profitable growth of sports activities betting within the Peach State.