Legalized gambling still work in progress for General Assembly
ATLANTA — Sagging state tax revenues are breathing new life into longstanding efforts in the General Assembly to legalize gambling in Georgia.
But with a little more than three weeks left before lawmakers convene for the 2020 session, the most passionate legislative backers of bringing casinos and horse racing to the Peach State haven’t decided whether to add sports betting to the mix or whether to combine all of the gambling proposals into one package or tackle them separately.
“I do think there’s momentum for something to happen this session,” state
Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta, said last Thursday after the final meeting of a Senate study committee he chaired that held several hearings on legalizing gambling in its various forms. “We need further deliberation.”
Beach’s committee adopted a 13-page report at its final meeting summarizing the hearings it held last summer and fall to listen to supporters and opponents of legalized gambling. But it stopped short of adopting recommendations for the full Senate.
On the other side of the Capitol, a special committee the House of Representatives formed to look for new revenue sources for the state – primarily but not limited to legalized gambling — also has yet to reach any conclusions.
Beach and Stephens have been prime movers behind efforts to pass a constitutional amendment legalizing gambling in Georgia that go back a half dozen years. Such constitutional changes require a two-thirds majority in the Georgia House and Senate and ratification in a statewide voter referendum.
Stephens has sponsored legislation calling for several proposed “destination” resorts to be built across the state, one in metro Atlanta and several others elsewhere in Georgia. While the projects would feature casinos, they also would include mixeduse development amenities such as shops, hotels and restaurants.
Backers of two specific casinos proposals pitched them to the two legislative committees. One would be built adjacent to the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, while the other is the brainchild of Columbus entrepreneur Bob Wright, who wants to build a casino resort along the Chattahoochee River between Uptown Columbus and Fort Benning.
“There’s been substantial development along the river,” Wright told members of the House committee Dec. 11 in Columbus. “Our goal is to continue that development in an area of Columbus that needs a lot of help. … It really needs an economic catalyst.”
Beach has been the main driving force behind legislation to legalize pari-mutuel betting on horse racing. He has pitched the proposal as a way to generate jobs in rural Georgia by creating an equine industry that would foster hay and breeding farms.
Sports betting is the newest arrival of the three. It wasn’t an option until May of last year, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a 1992 federal law that effectively banned commercial sports betting in most states.
Atlanta’s professional sports teams – the Braves, Falcons, Hawks and Atlanta United — have come out publicly in favor of legalizing sports betting as a way to gin up fan interest.
But Beach said some lawmakers are hesitant to take the plunge into sports betting because it doesn’t promise to generate much economic impact for the state.
Any sports betting bill Georgia lawmakers pass likely would be modeled after Tennessee, which has legalized online betting on sports. Unlike casinos and horse tracks, online betting doesn’t require construction of any jobs-producing entertainment facilities.
“It doesn’t create a lot of jobs,” Beach said. “I want to create jobs and industry.”
Another issue yet to be decided is how to craft legalized gambling legislation. Past efforts to get casinos and/or horse racing through the General Assembly have been taken up separately and have failed.