Senate Bill 172 is a sports betting bill recently passed by the Regulated Industries & Utilities Committee of the Georgia Senate by an 8-4 margin. Even so, there is still quite a way to go until the governor puts his pen to paper.
Let’s go through the main advancements regarding this process and what they represent for the online sportsbooks’ industry.
If at First You Don’t Succeed…
Sports betting measures have been proposed in Georgia before but have always fallen short of the mark. Bills authorizing a constitutional amendment, and others that didn’t, met an equally disappointing end. Therefore, no one is celebrating the small victory in the Senate committee but every journey begins with a first step.
“This has been a long process. It’s been multiple years we’ve been dealing with these gambling issues,” Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, the committee’s chairman and the bill’s chief sponsor, said in the report.
The bill would require a state constitutional amendment to take effect. This means two-thirds of both the House and Senate would need to approve it before voters could decide on November’s ballot.
Constitutional Amendment vs. Lottery Oversight
And while Cowsert is pursuing the constitutional amendment approach, the state’s professional sports teams and the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce believe the Georgia Lottery could oversee sports betting. This would eliminate the need for a statewide referendum.
“I don’t see anything to fear from a constitutional amendment,” Cowsert said. “I think if you make a policy change like this, you ought to have the buy-in of both parties and the citizens on board to do that, so I embrace that.”
The other issue Cowsert has with the lottery overseeing sports betting is that the funds would be allocated to prekindergarten classes in the state and HOPE Scholarships for students who achieve at least a “B” average in high school. Cowsert would prefer that the sponsors decide how the revenues generated from sports betting would be distributed.
However, others like Republican Senator John Albers of Roswell, who supported the bill, objected to others deciding where the funds would be directed and stated, “The other part that I do have a concern with is constantly trying to pick different folks to buy their support and their vote for any particular change.”
Contents of the Bill
Cowsert’s proposed legislation calls for the state to levy a 20% tax on the gross revenue from most sports bets. Meanwhile, a 25% take from “high-profit” bets. This category would include bets such as parlays or live bets during games, according to reports.
Other sports betting legislation is also being bandied about. Senator Carden Summers, the committee’s vice chairman, plans to introduce a sports betting constitutional amendment. Meanwhile, Senator Brandon Beach is viewing a comprehensive constitutional amendment. This would allow Georgia voters to decide not only on sports betting but also on casino gambling and pari-mutuel betting on horse racing.
Beach’s proposal reportedly contains the following three main points:
- Mobile sports betting
- Three destination casino resorts
- One (possibly two) pari-mutuel race track
Senator Beach noted that on a trip a few years ago, he noticed 85% of the license plates parked at a North Carolina Cherokee casino were from Georgia, which implies the state is losing all these tax dollars to neighboring states that have approved gambling in one form or another.
Bookmakers Review will continue to monitor this story and update our readers as events unfold.
Calculators
