Georgia Will Not Have Legal Sports Betting in 2023

Optimism for the legalization of sports betting in Georgia has come to a crashing halt.

The Peach State's 2023 legislative session has ended without any plan to pave the way for such a platform this year. In fact, the final kick at the can – House Bill 237 – wasn't even taken to the Senate floor for a vote.

Georgia legal sports betting has been a tough sell to say the least. There were five separate bills put forward, and ultimately quashed during the 2023 Georgia legislative session alone.

It leaves the 2024 legislative session as the next chance that Georgia bettors, the state’s sports teams, and ultimately the needy tax coffers in the Peach State will get to join the majority of U.S. states currently taking advantage of a regulated and taxed sports betting platform.

The fight in Georgia

Georgia lawmakers have been debating for years about just how to bring in a legal sports betting platform. There are those that say that a constitutional amendment is necessary – and there are those that are hoping to bypass such a vote in order to adopt a legal sports betting platform.

Bill HB 237 was the latest proposal that fell flat in the Georgia legislature. it was a two-page bill that tied legal sports betting to the official soap box derby of Georgia. Legal sports betting was added later to that bill in an attempt to get it across the finish line during the 2023 session.

Some feel that Georgia’s iconic soap box derby was hijacked by those with the bigger goal of passing a legal sports betting bill this year. Bill HB 237 was the last of five legal sports betting bills to be considered and ultimately rejected in Georgia in 2023.

16 retail and mobile sports betting operators would have been approved under the bill with the lottery corporation in the Peach State taking on regulatory duties. The tax rate would have been a state-friendly 22%.

What's at stake in the Peach State

Georgia checks in as the 8th-most populous state in the U.S. with nearly 11 million residents, and is home to a thriving underground and black market gambling scene.

An estimated $1.5 billion is bet illegally on sporting events in Georgia every year. It is a known fact that Georgians are placing sports bets, and politicians in the Peach State keep failing to take advantage of a tax revenue generator that has already been legalized in 37 other states.

“Billions of dollars a year are already being gambled in Georgia and the state gets nothing, no tax, no benefit,” then-Atlanta Hawks CEO Steve Koonin said in 2022 during yet another failed push to legalize sports betting in Georgia.

Tax funds generated by legal sports betting, according to the rejected proposals had been slated for prekindergarten classes and HOPE Scholarships for students in the Peach State. That education funding is just one of the casualties of lawmakers' failure to act on a sports betting platform in Georgia.

Georgia teams, fans missing out

There have been widespread calls by executives from Georgia sports teams to finally adopt a legal sports betting platform.

Georgia has teams in three of four of North America's major pro sports, and supports a healthy college sports fan base. The Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta Hawks, as well as their fans, are being left out in the cold when compared with other teams in their respective sports.

Lucrative sponsorship deals are still on hold as are "fan enhancement" opportunities for fans in jurisdictions that currently support a legal sports betting platform.

What's next?

Georgia bettors and the Peach State sports teams wager will have to wait until the 2024 Georgia State legislative session to have their desires heard yet again. 2023 provided no resolution and no pathway to legal sports betting in the state. It is still as much an open question as before lawmakers started their 2023 sitting.

Was 2023 a missed opportunity? Perhaps. Even Governor Brian Kemp, a prior opponent of legal sports betting, had signaled the intention to at least consider a change of heart, if and when a bill passed both the Georgia state House and Senate.

It’s wait and see again for hopeful Georgia bettors that legislators can finally agree on something in 2024 and get the Peach State on par with 37 other states. There is no shortage of support and effort for a legal sports betting platform in Georgia. Lawmakers continue to stand in the way.