Georgia’s sports betting push is officially dead for 2025.
Legislation that would have put online sports wagering to a voter referendum in Georgia flatlined on Thursday when it was not called to the House floor on crossover day.
Rep. Marcus Wiedower’s HR 450 and HB 686 were approved by the House Committee on Higher Education on Wednesday, a green light which sent it on to the Rules Committee.
On a long deadline day in the House, as Rules convened numerous times, the pair of bills were finally green-lit by the committee between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m but never went before the full chamber. The legislation needed to be approved by a two-thirds majority in the full house before Thursday’s session ended, as March 6 was the deadline for bills to cross over to the Senate.
Had that happened, legal online sports wagering would have been placed on the November 2026 ballot. Instead, the timeout left Georgia in the familiar position of seeing a legal sports betting push fizzle out in the legislature.
But, while the House broke a record with 75 bills passed on crossover day, the sports betting issue was not one of them.
Bill had seen tax hike this week
In the Higher Education Committee session on Wednesday, Rep. Sam Park proposed two significant amendments.
One, an ambitious attempt to add online casino gaming to the ballot initiative, was soundly defeated. But a change to raise the proposed sports betting tax rate from 20% to 24% was approved as representatives looked to increase funding for the state’s universal pre-K education and HOPE scholarships.
The first $150 million of sports betting tax revenue would have been split between those education initiatives (85%) and problem gambling and addiction supports (15%).
The proposed online sports betting market would have been regulated by the Georgia Lottery Corporation. License applicants would have paid a nonrefundable application fee of $100,000, and the cost of a license was set at $1 million.
A total of 16 online sports betting licenses would have been allowed under the framework, one of which would go to the lottery for its own digital betting platform. Five licenses would have been awarded to Georgia professional sports teams and seven would have been handed out to online sportsbooks after a public bidding process. The PGA Tour, the Augusta National Golf Club and the Atlanta Speedway would have held the remaining three.
Sports betting push had already stalled in Senate this year
In the Georgia Senate, bills to legalize sports betting had already failed this year.
The Committee on Regulated Industries and Utilities failed SR 131 by a 9-2 vote last week. That legislation, which was a reworking of a failed bill last year, would have amended the state constitution to allow a vote to allow retail and online casinos as well as online sports betting.
Another Senate effort, SB 208, which would also allow 18 sports betting licenses and tax sports wagering at 25%, was referred to committee made little progress.
