Georgia Shall Defer to 2024 for Possible Sports Betting Legislation

With the dog days of summer here, most state legislatures have either shut down or will be shutting down for the rest of the year. That includes the state of Georgia. With the Georgia state legislature no longer considering legislation in 2023, some important issues will have to be deferred until next year, 2024.

One of the issues that Georgia legislators pushed onto the backburner was the passing of sports betting legislation. This is the third year that sports betting legislation was introduced but failed to get enough support for passage.

According to Georgia Senator Bill Cowsert, they got close to passing sports betting legislation in 2023. In his mind, it would have passed had the presented legislation not been so overly complicated.

While nothing got done, it's clear that Sen. Cowsert is far from discouraged. He seems to believe that 2024 will be the year if the legislature would first commit to passing a Georgia state constitutional amendment. Speaking to PlayUSA reporters who were in attendance at the Denver National Council of Legislators From Gaming States, Cowsert stated:

“I do think it’s going to simplify things. I think it enhances the likelihood of passage that there will be less incentive to try to work around the constitutional amendment. So I think people will try to sort out their differences and get a coalition together to get the two-thirds vote to get a constitutional amendment through.”

Why Pushing for Constitutional Could Make the Difference

The reason Sen. Cowsert believes the key to passing sports betting legislation lies in first passing a constitutional amendment because it would put the issue directly in front of Georgia voters. By all indications, said voters do seem to support sports betting legislation.

It's noteworthy that prior efforts to pass the appropriate sports betting legislation sought to bypass a constitutional amendment in favor of running sports betting through the state's lottery commission. The consensus is that taking this approach proved to be too complicated.

To pass a constitutional amendment, the amendment has to be passed in both the House and Senate by a two-thirds vote. If passed, it would become an election initiative that would have to succeed by a majority vote among registered Georgia voters. If the voters say yes to the constitutional amendment, Congress could then proceed to draw up specific sports betting legislation that could become law.

There is the possibility that getting a constitutional amendment would be just as complicated as getting sports betting legislation passed. At issue is the fact that there is a congressional faction that is trying to get retail casinos and horse racing betting access lumped into the mix. This complicates matters because there seems less support for these other gambling options.

Still, Sen. Cowsert is loading up to make another major push for sports betting legislation when the Senate opens for business in 2024. Will it get done next year? That remains to be seen, though the latest Senate vote of 30-26 in favor suggests everything is moving in the right direction.