Georgia Sports Betting Discussion to Start off Up Quickly in Legislature, Lawmaker Says
Posted on: February 5, 2022, 08:41h. 
Last updated on: February five, 2022, 08:41h.
A major proponent of expanding gaming in Georgia stated in a recent op-ed that lawmakers will be taking up a sports betting measure soon.
State Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, wrote a guest column in the Bryan County News on Thursday relating to what has happened in the Basic Assembly. The Residence Economic Development & Tourism Committee chairman said he plans to take up a constitutional amendment that would let the Georgia Lottery oversee sports betting.
Stephens has been a vocal supporter of bringing casino resorts and legalizing sports betting in the state for years. He desires to see proceeds from gaming utilized to offer much more funding for college scholarships.
With this getting the 30th anniversary of the lottery vote making the HOPE Scholarship, a lot more than 2 million Georgians have lifted themselves up thru a greater education and technical college careers,” Stephens wrote. “More than 1.six million households received pre-K head begins. 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 yet another lottery game.”
The state Senate authorized a resolution final year that would initiate the approach for a constitutional amendment on sports betting.
Opponents Prepare for Fight
Expanded gaming faces an uphill challenge in Georgia, with social conservatives leading the fight.
Mike Griffin, a spokesman for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, told WJCL-Tv in Savannah on Friday that the debate on gaming has gotten “a lot a lot more intense” not too long ago. There are also concerns about addiction, stating that addictions to gaming are “in the identical category as heroin, opioids, tobacco, alcohol, and cocaine,” he stated.
“I feel an ounce of prevention is often worth a pound of cure,” he added.
This year is also an election year for Georgia’s leading political positions. A single Republican candidate for lieutenant governor has said the state wants to block efforts to legalize gaming. The lieutenant governor serves a crucial legislative role as president of the Senate and can cast a tie-breaking vote.
Jeanne Seaver stated other people running for the GOP’s nomination in the race “are pawns of commercialized gaming lobbyists” and have sponsored bills to expand gaming.
“If sports betting passes, it will open the door for much more gambling expansion,” Seaver tweeted on her campaign account Saturday. “We require strong leaders to stand against ALL gambling & maintain our state cost-free of this predatory market!”
Georgia One particular of Seven with a Sports Betting Bill
Sports betting is active or legalized in 33 states, plus the District of Columbia. According to the American Gaming Association, Georgia is one of seven other states with active legislation that would legalize it.
With a population of practically 11 million, Georgia is also one particular of the biggest states in the nation that has however to allow it in some form. Only California, exactly where a single or a lot more sports betting measures could go prior to voters in November, and Texas are the only states with a larger population that have yet to act on sports betting.
Neighboring Florida passed sports betting when it ratified an amended gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe. Nevertheless, that agreement has been struck down by a federal judge. Tribal leaders and the federal government have appealed that choice.
