Georgia Senate passes sports betting bill
Senate Bill 386 will move forward to the House for more debate.
US.- The Georgia Senate has voted 35-15 to advance Senate Bill 386, which would legalise sports betting in the state. The Senate also approved an amendment that would require a referendum of Georgia voters in November. The amendment passed with a 34-7 vote.
Following Senate approval, the sports betting bill now progresses to the Georgia House of Representatives for further discussion. The bill would create 16 licences, with eight tethered to Georgia sports organisations, seven open licences and a licence for the Georgia Lottery. Those licences would require a $100,000 application fee and an annual licence fee of $1m. Each licensee could partner with one sports betting operator.
The licences would be awarded to professional sports franchises Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta Dream and Atlanta United as well as the Augusta National, NASCAR’s Atlanta Motor Speedway and the Georgia Lottery. The Georgia Lottery would award the remaining licences to companies.
Under the version of the bill that advanced last week, 20 per cent of revenue would go toward scholarships for higher education and pre-K funded by the Georgia Lottery.
Several bills aiming to legalise sports betting or other types of gambling failed during the 2023 session.
