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Georgia Moves One Step Closer to Legal Sports Wagering

The legislature of Georgia decided to give sports betting another shot by voting a bill amendment that could allow for the introduction of legal sports wagering platforms in the state. The members of the Senate Special Judiciary Committee voted in favor of amending House Bill 903 to introduce legal wagering on sports events via regulated platforms like FanDuel and DraftKings that would be overseen by the Georgia state lottery.

The sports betting measure was attached to House Bill 903, a piece of legislation that otherwise deals with traffic ticket citations. The legislation itself was approved by Georgia’s General Assembly earlier this year, in March. It was sponsored by Senator Burt Jones who insists that the introduction of legal and properly regulated sports wagering will be beneficial to the Peach State.

Legal Betting Could Boost Georgia’s Annual Revenue with $60 Million

Senator Jones, who is a member of the Republican Party from Jackson, assured the Senate Special Judiciary Committee that legal sports wagering could potentially add to the state coffers $60 million in additional revenue each year.

Profits from the Georgia state lottery go toward the HOPE Scholarship program. The latter aims at assisting some of the students from the Peach State with their college tuition fees. A portion of the funds from the Hope Scholarship is also used for subsidizing preschool classes across Georgia.

The extra funds generated through sports betting would likely not suffice to cover the state’s $2.6 billion budget shortage for the upcoming year. Senator Burt Jones is convinced the increasing costs associated with scholarship programs could overtake the decreasing growth of state lottery revenue in the long run.

Senator Jones argued that the only way to maintain the program viable would be to either reduce the tuition costs or increase state revenue, something which can be achieved with the introduction of regulated sports wagering. Senator Jones stressed that in the absence of legal wagering, Georgians are forced to take their betting action to illegal offshore websites. Thus, local punters are contributing to an unregulated industry, estimated at the staggering $1.5 billion.

The original version of the legislation was called Senate Bill (SB) 403. It was modeled after a similar sports betting bill proposed in Tennessee, where lawmakers plan to tax licensed operators at a rate of 20%. Legal in-play wagering would also be allowed in Tennessee.

Georgia’s Professional Sports Teams Back the Bill

By contrast, Georgia’s Senator Jones initially suggested twice as low tax rates of 10% although he stated he was willing to increase this percentage in March. His bill also includes a proposal for a $900,000 annual fee that licensed sports betting operators will have to contribute. The number of regulated betting companies will be uncapped in Georgia.

Senator Jones’ bill has also been embraced by the Georgia Professional Sports Integrity Alliance (GPSIA), which advocates for the introduction of legal online and mobile betting in the Peach State. Local teams like the Atlanta Falcons, the Braves, Atlanta United, and the Hawks are all members of the GPSIA coalition, which is also committed to protecting the integrity of local sports.

The original Senate Bill 403 failed to receive a vote when it was initially introduced by Senator Jones. However, lawmakers apparently decided to give it the green light in an attempt to deal with the budget deficit the Peach State has suffered during the coronavirus pandemic. Georgia is one step closer to legal sports wagering as Senator Jones’ House Bill 903 will now be moved to the Senate floor.



 Author: Harrison Young

Harrison Young is an experienced writer, who started his career almost 8 years ago. Prior to joining our team at CasinoGamesPro, he worked as an editor for a small magazine.
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