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ATLANTA - A proposal asking Georgia voters whether to legalize casinos, horse racing and sports betting in the Peach State is back on the table in the General Assembly.
The House Regulated Industries Committee approved a resolution Monday calling for a statewide referendum on all three forms of legalized gambling. The same panel approved a gambling vote in March, but it failed to reach the House floor for a vote before lawmakers took a three-month break to discourage the spread of coronavirus.
While that seemed to doom the measure for this year, it’s back up for debate during the final week of the 2020 legislative session because supporters inserted it into another proposed constitutional amendment identical to legislation that already had gained final passage.
Lawmakers have been debating legalized gambling in Georgia for years, arguing among other things that voters deserve the chance to decide the issue once and for all.
“Whether you’re for or against the bill, allow the people to vote,” Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, a leading supporter of legalized gambling, told committee members Monday.
Georgia Casinos News Topics; Specialized News Sections on Georgia Casinos. Casino News Today. +1 (202) 335-3939. Set Up FREE Account Submit Release. About News by Country News by Industry Get News. ATLANTA — Proposals to legalize gambling in Georgia are now in the pipeline of both legislative chambers in the General Assembly. A bill introduced in the state Senate this week would allow pari-mutuel betting on horse racing in the Peach State subject to a statewide referendum. The Senate bill.
Stephens, chairman of the House Economic Development and Tourism Committee, has pitched legalized gambling throughout the years-old debate on the issue as a way to attract tourists and conventions to Georgia.
The state needs a boost to its economy particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced businesses across Georgia to close their doors, he said.
Stephens said casinos, racetracks and sports betting also would inject needed additional revenue into Georgia’s HOPE Scholarships and pre-kindergarten programs.
The percentage of student tuition HOPE covers has been declining in recent years because of pressure on the lottery-funded program’s revenues resulting from growing enrollment in Georgia’s public colleges and universities.
The proposed constitutional amendment would create a fund that would cover the difference between HOPE scholarship awards and the actual cost of tuition for Georgia students from families earning below 50% of the state’s median income, Stephens said. A separate fund supported by gambling proceeds would help prop up the state’s budget reserves, he said.
If voters approve the statewide referendum, Stephens noted, no casino, racetrack or sports betting parlor could be built in a community without the approval of local voters in a second referendum.
“It can’t come to your backyard until your backyard wants it,” he said.
As has been the case since Georgia lawmakers started talking about legalizing gambling, opposition has been spearheaded by faith-based groups.
Virginia Galloway, regional field director of the Duluth-based Faith and Freedom Coalition, said gambling brings crime and corruption to states where it’s legal.
“Any state that’s got gambling in it, you probably wouldn’t want to live,” Galloway told the committee. “I don’t want my state to become Louisiana, New Jersey [or] Illinois.”
The measure the House committee passed Monday is one of two 11th-hour efforts in the General Assembly to move forward on legalized gambling. A bill that would allow sports betting in Georgia cleared a state Senate committee last Friday.
A second gambling expansion bill was filed in Georgia Tuesday as Rep. Ron Stephens filed HR 30, which would allow citizens to vote on whether casino gambling is legal.
It’s the second gambling bill that Stephens has sponsored after having his name attached to an online sports betting bill that was filed earlier this month at the start of the legislative session. According to a report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Stephens said he plans to file a third piece of legislation that would legalize horse racing.
If passed, HR 30 would put a question on the ballot in 2022 asking whether voters support bringing casinos to the Peach State. Last December, Stephens told local media that getting expanded gambling passed in 2021 was incredibly likely but did mention that sports betting would be the easiest to pass.
Casino gambling would require an amendment to the state constitution which is why it would require a ballot initiative. With bills that require a constitutional amendment, two-thirds majority is needed in both chambers to get to the governor’s desk. Sports betting, however, could be legalized through the normal legislative process and a simple majority vote.
Like most other states that are looking at expanded gambling, tax revenue is a driving force behind legalization.
“We’re back at trying to backfill the HOPE Scholarship and Pre-K, and the destination resorts, along with the tourism piece, is the way to do it,” Stephens told the AJC.
There was growing support for expanded gambling as the 2020 legislative session started, but the pandemic forced lawmakers to rearrange their legislative priorities. At the start of 2020, the president of the Atlanta Motor Speedway drew up a proposal for a $1 billion casino complex on-site.