April 27, 2024
ATLANTA (AP) — An effort to authorize sports betting in Georgia has failed for another year, after lawmakers couldn't agree on how to spend money collected on taxes.
Neither a proposed state constitutional amendment or authorizing legislation ever came to a vote in the House, after a committee passed it out early on Thursday, the last day of the 2024 legislative session.
A top Democrat said his party wanted to see changes in how state taxes on sports betting would be spent. Without Democratic votes, a constitutional amendment couldn't achieve the two-thirds majorities needed to pass the House and Senate. And Republicans were far from unified. Some GOP lawmakers oppose sports betting, saying they don't want the state to sanction destructive and addictive behavior.
House Minority Whip Sam Park, a Lawrenceville Democrat, voted to advance Senate Resolution 579 and Senate Bill 386, but said he and other Democrats don't support the bills passing as they're currently written. That's because the House committee changed the measure to allow taxes to be deposited for the use of HOPE college scholarships and pre-K classes.
The Senate measure prioritized using the money for pre-K, and some Democrats also wanted money to be used for other purposes, such as college financial aid that doesn't require students to achieve and keep certain grades.
“It deviates from the bipartisan compromise in the state Senate that prioritized funding for voluntary pre-K,” Park said."
Supporters said Georgians should get a chance to vote, arguing many are already betting on sports illegally.
Opponents, though, warned that legalizing sports betting will provide a pathway to addiction, especially for younger gamblers.
“When it is sanctioned by the state, to me it provides a different level," said Rep. Clay Pirkle, an Ashburn Republican. “If the state says it’s OK, it becomes OK for a lot of people not doing this now.”
