Georgia has long been pushing to become the 39th state to allow sports gambling nationwide. The motion to allow online sports betting, Senate Bill 386, has bipartisan support from every branch of the government and many professional sports teams are on board with it, including the Atlanta Braves.
However popular it may be, several moving parts surround this bill. So, to help us understand everything, The Steakhouse welcomed AJC political correspondent Greg Bluestein onto the show to provide some context and give an idea of what to expect moving forward.
"We've had this debate, for Georgians, for years," Bluestein said about the legislation. "There seems to be a consensus among lawmakers from both parties that they at least support some sort of expansion of gambling to include sports betting."
There are two options for lawmakers at this juncture: make a legal change that would effectively let sports gambling be overseen by the Georgia Lottery or enact a constitutional amendment.
As of the writing of this piece, the Georgia State Senate adopted the bill to allow sports betting, sending it to the House for more debate. Unfortunately for supporters of the resolution, they also voted to fuse it with a constitutional amendment -- which would require two-thirds of both the House and the Senate before it could go out to the voters for approval.
This same measure has been the downfall of sports gambling for the last few years, which will again cast its future into doubt. However, these are backed by those who want to bring casinos to the state, and that makes the road to legalized sports gambling much murkier.
"They just think it's more legally clarifying," Bluestein continued regarding why there is support for the constitutional amendment. "There is a gray area over whether the state lottery could oversee sports gambling and whether it's allowed under the state lottery's provisions."
The bill is clearly popular, as shown by the 35 affirmative votes (62.5 percent) on Thursday, but they would need to add at least three more senators to pass the amendment. An effort last year was the closest they had been to passing the measure, but it only managed 30 votes due to the portion of the population that morally opposes gambling.
According to the bill's sponsor, sports betting could generate $100 million or more in earmarked revenue that would be directed to the state's education programs like prekindergarten classes and the HOPE Scholarship.
For all the good it could do for the state, it remains unlikely that it ever reaches the general public by election season next fall.
"I wouldn't bet on it," Bluestein said. "We've had this debate for years and years. It just doesn't look like it has the support to pass as a constitutional amendment."