(The Center Square) – A bill that would allow Georgia voters to decide if they want to legalize sports betting is still alive in the House of Representatives after passing the House Higher Education Committee on Wednesday.
The bill must pass by the House by Thursday, which is Crossover Day when bills must move out of their respective chambers.
House Bill 686 and House Resolution 450 are sponsored by Rep. Marcus Wiedower, R-Watkinsville.
The bill would set up the tax structure and regulations. Sports betting would be taxed at 20%, with proceeds going to the Georgia Lottery to support universal Pre-K. The bill was amended by the committee to increase the tax to 24% on Wednesday.
The resolution would put the issue on the November 2026 ballot. Neither piece of legislation would apply to casinos or other brick-and-mortar gambling, just sports betting.
“This measure, as I see it, is to reign in and puts guardrails on something that is happening right now,” Wiedower told the committee in a Tuesday meeting. “Each one of us can pick up our phone and place bets with zero to no regulations whatsoever.”
Sports betting is legal in 39 states and the District of Columbia, according to the American Gaming Association. Tennessee and Florida, Georgia’s neighbors, allow sports betting.
Surveys have shown the issue has bipartisan support. One conducted in December by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce showed 63% supported putting sports wagering on the ballot, including nearly 65% of those who identified as Republicans.
Republicans asked voters on their May 2024 ballot if voters should decide whether to allow gaming in the state and more than 81% said “yes.”
The proposal has its detractors, including the Georgia Baptist Mission Board and the Georgia Faith and Freedom Coalition.
“Study after study shows the numerous problematic outcomes of this–reduced on the job productivity, bankruptcy, divorce, suicide attempts, you know the list,” Mack Parnell, executive director of the Georgia Faith and Freedom Coalition, told the House Higher Education Committee on Tuesday. “In the legislation, there’s mitigation efforts, which leads me to wonder that if in the legislation where you are legalizing something, you to have mitigation efforts, why would you be endorsing that.”
The Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee voted down a Senate resolution last week that would have not only legalized sports betting, but casinos as well. The money from that bill would have been distributed among Georgia’s 159 counties.
