Backers wager that sports betting could have easier path this year in Legislature

Too late for this year’s Super Bowl, a bill was introduced that would legalize the billions of dollars of sports betting that is apparently already happening in Georgia.

The measure itself — House Bill 380, filed by state Rep. Marcus Wiedower, R-Watkinsville — relies on a big bet: that it won’t require an amendment to the state’s constitution.

HB 380 would grant up to 16 licenses to companies willing to pay a $100,000 application fee and an annual license fee of $1 million for a piece of the action. They would also pay a 15% tax to the state on their adjusted gross income.

That’s not a bad wager if you believe sports betting’s backers, who say Georgians illegally bet nearly $5 billion a year on sports.

What would be the state’s cut under HB 380? Supporters’ estimates run from $30 million to $100 million in annual revenue. Critics say those numbers are exaggerated.

How that money would be spent has been among the issues that have blocked sports betting bills in the past.

Wiedower’s bill would dedicate that money for educational programs, such as the HOPE scholarship and pre-kindergarten classes, the same place lottery proceeds go.

That part about the lottery is key. Former Georgia Supreme Court Justice Harold D. Melton recently wrote a memo that argued a constitutional amendment is not required to legalize online sports betting because it should be considered an extension of the state lottery. (The same would not hold for casinos or horse racing in Melton’s opinion.)

The memo was requested by the Metro Atlanta Chamber, which supports sports betting legislation.

Amending the state constitution has been the big barrier to gambling legislation in the past. It’s a task that requires approval by two-thirds of the lawmakers in each of the General Assembly’s chambers, followed by the support of a majority of voters.

Republicans are divided when it comes to gambling, so if a constitutional amendment were needed in this case, Wiedower couldn’t count on all his GOP brethren to back HB 380. Even if they did, they still don’t hold a two-thirds majority in each chamber.

That would give Democrats a rare bargaining chip. And they want fundGeorgia ing for a needs-based college scholarship, something that killed a similar bill last year in the House Rules Committee.

But if Melton’s right, that chip isn’t worth as much.

Maybe Wiedower doesn’t need any Democrats to get the simple majority in each chamber required for passage. For certain, he wouldn’t need as many.

But even if Melton is right — and it should be noted that other high-power legal types disagree — passing sports betting, like an all-night poker game, could become an endurance test.