Current:Home > MyGeorgia Senate seeks to let voters decide sports betting in November -Infinite Edge Learning
Georgia Senate seeks to let voters decide sports betting in November
Johnathan Walker View
Date:2025-04-10 16:49:08
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgians could get a chance in November to vote on authorizing sports gambling after senators on Tuesday approved a state constitutional amendment.
It’s a big step forward for those who want Georgians to be able to bet on pro and college sports after years of being stymied in the Senate. But the measure still has a long way to go, and would require two-thirds approval in the state House before it would go to the ballot.
The Senate voted 41-12 for Senate Resolution 579. It would designate 80% of taxes from sports betting to prekindergarten programs, and then to college scholarships once prekindergarten programs are fully funded. Another 15% of proceeds would go to aiding people with gambling problems, while the remaining 5% would create a fund for Georgia to recruit and fund major sports events.
Some supporters have sought to legalize sports gambling as part of the state lottery without a constitutional amendment. But Republican state Sen. Bill Cowsert of Athens has long said he wants voters to get a say, arguing that when Georgia voters authorized the lottery in 1992, they didn’t believe they were approving sports betting.
“I think it’s the politically appropriate thing to do when we make this type of major policy shift in our state,” Cowsert said. “This is to give voters the opportunity to speak on the issue.”
Sen. Marty Harbin, a Tyrone Republican, said it was a mistake to send sports gambling to the ballot, warning that it’s a ruinously addictive form of gambling.
“The people who vote for the constitutional amendment will not have the knowledge and information that you and I have,” Harbin said.
He said the more than $100 million a year in tax money that sports gambling might raise isn’t worth the problems it would cause, especially when Georgia’s budget is currently flush.
“We have the money,” Harbin said. “We have the No. 1 state to do business in. We have a state that is prosperous.”
The measure passed with relatively little debate after the Senate earlier this year passed a bill that would set up a structure for sports betting as long as a constitutional amendment passes. That measure, though, won only 34 votes, leaving in question whether an amendment could clear the required two-thirds threshold in the Senate.
Nationwide, 38 states allow sports betting. Some states allow only in-person bets, although most allow electronic betting from anywhere. Georgia’s earlier bill would take 20% of proceeds in taxes, after winnings are paid to gamblers. Nationwide, tax rates are set at anywhere from 6.75% in Iowa to 51% in Rhode Island and New York.
Lawmakers continue to maneuver over gambling though, with supporters of casinos and betting on horse racing seeking to push their causes forward by linking them to sports betting. Sen. Carden Summers, a Cordele Republican, for example, argued to other senators Tuesday that lawmakers should give voters a chance to remove all prohibitions on gambling from the state constitution, not just the prohibition on sports betting. That would clear the way for casinos, which Summers favors.
That maneuvering, along with Democrats’ unwillingness to provide needed votes in the face of moral opposition to gambling from some Republicans, has killed efforts in previous years.
Senate Minority Gloria Butler, a Stone Mountain Democrat, said her party agreed to go along with the plan this time in part because it prioritizes money for prekindergarten. Butler, for example, said she’d like to see the state expand its program to cover more 3-year-olds, in addition to 4-year-olds.
“Why not start at 3 years old?” Butler asked.
veryGood! (55)
Related
- Questlove charts 50 years of SNL musical hits (and misses)
- New York attorney general's Trump lawsuit ready for trial, her office says
- Employee put on leave after diesel fuel leaks into city's water supply
- 10 injured after stolen vehicle strikes pedestrians in New York City, police say
- Military service academies see drop in reported sexual assaults after alarming surge
- Steve Jobs' son starting investment firm to focus on new cancer treatments, per report
- Malians who thrived with arrival of UN peacekeeping mission fear economic fallout from its departure
- Fatal stabbing of dancer at Brooklyn gas station being investigated as possible hate crime, police say
- Paula Abdul settles lawsuit with former 'So You Think You Can Dance' co
- New York attorney general's Trump lawsuit ready for trial, her office says
Ranking
- Could your smelly farts help science?
- Judge denies bond for woman charged in crash that killed newlywed, saying she's a flight risk
- California firm to pay $1 million for selling devices to thwart diesel truck smog controls
- This bird hadn't been seen in Wisconsin for 178 years. That changed last week.
- The company planning a successor to Concorde makes its first supersonic test
- TikToker Mikayla Nogueira Addresses Claims She's Taking Ozempic
- Prepare to flick off your incandescent bulbs for good under new US rules that kicked in this week
- Black bear, cub euthanized after attacking man opening his garage door in Idaho
Recommendation
Which apps offer encrypted messaging? How to switch and what to know after feds’ warning
James Larkin, Arizona executive who faced charges of aiding prostitution, dead at 74
North Carolina Gov. Cooper isn’t sold on tax-cut restrictions by Republicans still finalizing budget
Gunfire to ring out at Parkland school once again. A reenactment is planned Friday.
Current, future North Carolina governor’s challenge of power
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 is advanced and retro—pre-order today and save up to $1,070
Fitch downgrades U.S. credit rating. How could it impact the economy and you?
Trump indicted by grand jury in special counsel Jack Smith's Jan. 6 investigation