Georgia legislators’ efforts to legalize sports betting look to be dead for another year after the state House of Representatives poured cold water on a proposed voter referendum.
The Georgia House voted 98-63 against House Resolution 450 on Friday, which would have let voters decide at the next election whether or not the Peach State is ripe for sports betting expansion. The measure needed 120 votes to pass.
Friday was the crossover deadline for proposed legislation in Georgia. The legislative session itself is set to end on April 2.
Late momentum quickly stalled
HR 450 was the necessary constitutional amendment measure that would have put the issue to the required vote, asking state residents whether sports betting should be legalized for the express purpose of raising tax money to fund public and higher education.
House Bill 686 was the bill that laid out the framework and key details for Georgia’s proposed sports betting market. Both of those pieces of legislation were approved by the House Higher Education Committee on Friday before the momentum was immediately halted on the chamber floor.
HB 686 would have needed HR 450 to be passed in order to take effect.
The bill proposed allowing the state to offer 16 sports betting licenses, eight of which automatically would be given to the state’s professional sports organizations to partner with sportsbook operators. Another seven would have been awarded via a competitive bidding process. The Georgia Lottery, which would have been the market’s regulator, would have been entitled to the final license.
HB 686 would have taxed sports betting at 27.5% of operators’ adjusted gross income and operators would have paid a $1m annual licensing fee. Other specific measures outlined in the bill including a prohibition on college prop wagers.
NCLGS President-Elect Al Williams criticizes process
While numerous legislators supported the proposal this year, mainly citing the potential for revenue generation and a desire to begin regulating and taxing existing sports betting activity in the state, many others opposed the idea.
Reasons given during the House floor session on Friday for pushing back on the bill ranged from problem gambling and addiction fears to fundamental dislike of gambling as an activity, but some legislators took issue with specific measures in the bill.
Rep. Todd Jones, for example, called the plan to give every pro sports team entry into the market is “not what we’re about” in Georgia. “We weren’t elected to pick winners and losers,” he said.
The most notable and passionate opposition on the floor came from veteran Democrat Rep. Al Williams, who was a co-sponsor of HR 450 and is also president-elect of the National Council of Legislators From Gaming States (NCLGS).
“This is in need of bi-partisan support, and to get bi-partisan support, you need to let the folks on this side of the aisle have some say on how the money is going to be divided,” Williams said during a speech that lasted nearly 10 minutes. “The last time I was handed a plate of food and told ‘eat this’, I was quite young and didn’t have any choice. Since then, I get to decide what to eat.”
“We went from zero to 100 degrees’ and I didn’t have a chance to take my winter clothes off”
Williams also added that he believed Georgia lawmakers were not given an opportunity to have anywhere near the depth and breadth of discussion that is needed for a proposal like legalizing online sports betting, stressing the need for both the majority and minority caucuses to agree.
“All I’m saying is the conversation we’ve had in the last two hours was a conversation we needed to start having in January, where the needs of the minority caucus could be heard, working with the majority caucus to come up with a workable plan … It’s not that I’m against sports betting. I’m against the way this was handled. The conversation really started Monday, heated up by Wednesday, got red-hot tonight. We went from zero to 100 degrees and I didn’t have a chance to take my winter clothes off.”
In a statement published after the resolution was rejected, the Sports Betting Alliance lamented the decision, citing existing offshore wagering and the growth of sports prediction markets. But the coalition of leading online sportsbooks suggested that the fact that the measure reached the House floor shows that members want to continue the conversation.
This year was the second in a row during which HR 450 was shelved by the General Assembly. Last year, it did not even reach the chamber floor.
