ATLANTA — Monday a Georgia House committee was scheduled to take up a sports betting bill – giving the measure a possible push just ahead of the legislature’s scheduled adjournment Thursday.
When it convened, the House Higher Education committee learned much of the bill, which has passed the Senate, had been rewritten.
Sports betting has a big hurdle to overcome because it’s a constitutional amendment, requiring a two-thirds vote. Though it passed in the Senate, the House has always been its biggest barrier.
Putting a friendly hand on a colleague's shoulder, state Rep. Marcus Wiedower (R-Watkinsville) told lawmakers illegal betting is already taking place in Georgia.
"Chairman (Dale) Washburn could be placing a bet on his phone right now and none of us would know it," Wiedower told the committee.
In a late afternoon committee hearing, House members revealed a rewritten sports betting bill. It still helps fund HOPE scholarships for B-average high school graduates. But the new version reduced the amount of money guaranteed for pre-K, and would vastly reduce funding for problem gambling programs.
"Thirty-eight states have already done it. I hate to be at the end but – it’s something people are asking us to do," state Rep. Ron Stephens (R-Savannah) told 11Alive last week
Stephens has spent years trying to get Georgia to legalize sports betting. But many Democrats want the proceeds to also fund school lunches or needs-based college scholarships. Lawmakers of both parties are wary of legalizing it because they’re concerned it would increase gambling addiction.
Yet, backers say Georgians are gambling online anyway – while paying no taxes in Georgia.
"Bring it into an arena that is legalized and regulated by the State of Georgia for the Georgians that are participating in it today," Wiedower urged the committee.
The rewritten bill is a constitutional amendment, which would require two-thirds passage in the House; the new language would also require another Senate vote by Thursday's adjournment.