Georgia Makes Progress Towards Legalized Sports Betting
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:03 A big push for Georgia to get things going as far as legalized sports betting.
00:08 And Pat, I don't wanna get people too excited.
00:09 It's not like this is happening this year.
00:12 But we've seen stranger things happen like in Florida and
00:15 Kentucky and other places too.
00:16 I'm getting some good vibes that there's a possibility in the future
00:21 that this happens.
00:22 >> Honestly, Georgia's really kind of surprising me.
00:27 I mean, and I'll go through them.
00:29 There are some huge caveats here.
00:31 But yesterday was a huge day for Southern states.
00:35 I mean, both Georgia and Mississippi, which we'll talk about in a few minutes,
00:38 were able to get a sports betting bill through their respective
00:43 chamber of origin, which is a very big deal this early in the sessions.
00:47 It kind of shows there's a little bit of a priority here and
00:53 they wanna get it through.
00:53 So the other chamber can work through whatever issues are over there and
00:58 just whatever issues might be between the chambers.
01:01 But in Georgia, Senator Clint Dixon was sent over or
01:07 introduced a bill last week to legalize online sports betting through 16 licenses,
01:12 including eight that are tethered to sports organizations, one for
01:17 the Georgia lottery, and an additional seven through just an open procurement
01:21 process run by the lottery.
01:24 In his introduction, he said that because it is run by and
01:29 funds programs through the lottery, that you don't need a constitutional amendment.
01:34 Now, if you've watched this program and heard us talking about Georgia before,
01:37 that's a little bit of a sticking point for a lot of lawmakers and
01:42 sports betting proponents.
01:43 There's some who don't think it needs that amendment, such as Dixon, and
01:48 then some who do, like Senator Bill Cowsert, who introduced an amendment
01:53 yesterday on the Senate floor to change the language to make sure this bill
01:59 necessitates a constitutional amendment, which needs to be approved by voters in
02:05 November.
02:06 So this was an overwhelmingly approved amendment, and
02:11 then the bill was overwhelmingly approved.
02:13 And it now goes on to the House, where there will be some issues.
02:17 I talked to a source, he said, this was quick, this was great, it was smooth, but
02:23 it is not an open and shut case.
02:25 There are going to be some struggles in the House.
02:28 Who's to say the tax rates are right, the license rates are right.
02:32 I've had multiple sources telling me a conference committee is kind of expected.
02:36 That means there's the Senate version and the House version, and
02:39 then they're gonna have to get a couple of people from each chamber together and
02:43 kind of wrestle out the details of what exactly sports betting in Georgia might
02:48 look like, it certainly seems like the amendment is here to stay.
02:53 And that will require a three-fifths vote on the House side as well.
02:59 And then of course, it needs to go to voters in November, which by all accounts,
03:03 I imagine the Georgia voters would kind of be okay and pass it.
03:07 And I think the bill right now has a July 1st start date,
03:10 if I remember correctly, of 2025.
03:13 So it is possible that Georgians have sports betting by next summer,
03:18 by the NFL season for sure.
03:20 And of course, again, the House could be a huge problem.
03:24 In the years past, we've seen sports betting kind of die in Georgia because of
03:30 other issues that have come up.
03:32 The Republican majority has opponents within it, so
03:35 you can't just have one party vote for sports betting.
03:38 You need that bipartisan support, which on the Senate side had a lot of it.
03:42 It was about 12, there were 12 sponsors.
03:44 They're about equal of Republican and Democrats.
03:47 Who knows what's gonna happen on the House side and
03:49 who's gonna kind of fall into line there?
03:52 So still some questions, but it's a promising start in Georgia.
03:56 And that's certainly moving quicker than I think I would have expected to start
04:01 the year.
04:02 [MUSIC]