Georgia's Progress Towards Legalizing Sports Betting

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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:03 Georgia is one of the states here in the US

00:07 that there's a lot of speculation

00:08 is next in line, potentially, to get sports betting legalized.

00:13 They're having a hearing, as you mentioned right now.

00:15 You took a break to join us.

00:17 Where does this stand in terms of dynamics?

00:20 Because once upon a time, maybe a year ago,

00:22 us doing the show, Pat, you and I talked, oh,

00:25 forget the South.

00:26 Florida, never going to happen.

00:27 Kentucky, never going to happen.

00:28 Mississippi, can't even get online.

00:30 Well, here we go.

00:31 The South has been way more aggressive getting

00:34 sports betting than we would have anticipated.

00:36 Is Georgia next?

00:39 Yeah, to your point, coming into this year,

00:44 all these states-- Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi--

00:47 Mississippi already has retail sports betting, of course.

00:49 But they want to go online.

00:51 South Carolina-- all these states

00:52 have been kind of dragging their feet a little bit

00:55 and saying, maybe sports betting isn't for us.

00:59 We'll see what happens in Alabama and Mississippi

01:02 going forward.

01:03 But in Georgia, we had a little bit of a big development

01:06 last week.

01:09 In the past couple of years, we've

01:11 seen some promising efforts that give us a little bit of hope

01:15 that maybe it'll get done.

01:16 And then it fizzles out, because in Georgia, you've

01:18 got a very fickle political kind of map to figure out.

01:25 And sports betting, although we think it's super important,

01:30 it falls down below plenty of other issues.

01:34 And you've got the Republicans, who control the majority

01:39 in Georgia, who--

01:40 they'll do something that the Democrats don't

01:42 like early in the session.

01:43 And the Democrats dig in their feet and say, no,

01:46 we're not going to help you with any issues.

01:48 And sports betting is one of those issues

01:50 that you need Democratic support,

01:53 because there are some Republicans on the majority

01:56 side who say, we don't like sports betting.

01:59 And you've got people on the Democrat side

02:01 who also don't like sports betting.

02:01 So it has to be a bipartisan issue.

02:04 This bill that came out last week, interestingly enough,

02:08 has 12 sponsors, almost as many Democratic sponsors

02:11 as Republican.

02:12 This is a Republican-led bill, but you

02:14 have the Senate minority leader on board as well,

02:17 which that's a huge progressive step, I think,

02:21 for sports betting in Georgia.

02:22 I mean, heading into the year, I had multiple industry sources

02:25 tell me they were hopeful, but worried politics

02:27 would get in the way, particularly

02:29 in a presidential election year.

02:32 And so far, this seems to be not that big of an issue.

02:37 It seems like they're rallying behind this.

02:39 They realize it's a big source of potential

02:41 for pre-K funding.

02:43 And that's what they're excited about.

02:45 There was a hearing this morning, as you mentioned.

02:48 The committee favored the bill 8-2.

02:50 It goes on to the Rules Committee

02:52 and could be on the Senate floor later this week.

02:55 And so that's a bill we're going to keep an eye on.

02:59 So yeah, I mean, there's only, I think, 36 senators.

03:02 It's got 12 Senate sponsors.

03:04 So you only need a simple majority,

03:05 because they're getting around the need

03:08 for a constitutional amendment by tying it

03:11 to the Georgia lottery.

03:13 And so they only need the simple majority.

03:15 And that's only a few extra votes.

03:17 So this is a huge step for Georgia.

03:20 And it could be a sign that it could be this year's Kentucky.

03:23 Remember last year, we didn't know

03:24 Kentucky had any sort of chance.

03:26 And they just kind of slipped it through and said, hey,

03:28 we're here.

03:28 And now they're live with sports betting.

03:30 And so that could be Georgia this year.

03:32 On the flip side, who knows what's

03:34 going on in the House right now.

03:36 And that's where the politics could come into play some more

03:39 as we get further into the session

03:41 and see how the parties are playing together

03:44 on that side of the aisle.

03:47 So yeah, Georgia, lots of positive steps.

03:49 It would be 17 licenses, including eight for teams.

03:53 And like Augusta National would have one,

03:56 the PGA Tour and NASCAR, as well as five teams in Atlanta.

03:59 And then seven standalone licenses as well,

04:03 and a Georgia lottery skin.

04:04 So it's a pretty fun framework.

04:07 20% of taxes, 20% tax.

04:11 And so the framework's there.

04:13 I talked to a source who was on the ground in Georgia,

04:17 hobnobbing with politicians.

04:18 And he said, it's got legs.

04:20 It's bipartisan support.

04:21 The lieutenant governor likes it.

04:23 But yeah, it's really just seeing

04:25 how the rest of the session plays out politically

04:27 in Georgia.

04:28 (upbeat music)

04:31 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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