Legalized gambling back on General Assembly’s agenda

Published 2:59 pm Monday, July 28, 2025

ATLANTA – Georgia lawmakers resumed a perennial debate Monday over whether gambling should be legalized in Georgia.

“We’ve been talking about this issue since my hair was black,” decidedly gray state Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, quipped as the newly formed House Study Committee on Gaming in the State of Georgia kicked off a series of hearings due to run through the fall.

While future meetings will take up online sports betting and pari-mutuel betting on horse racing, Monday’s hearing at the Oconee County Administrative Building in Watkinsville focused on casino gambling.

Ed Clark, president of EchoPark Speedway – until recently known as Atlanta Motor Speedway – used the occasion to reiterate the facility’s plan to build a “destination” casino resort adjacent to the racetrack in Hampton.

He said the project would create up to 3,000 construction jobs and another 2,500 to 3,000 permanent full-time and part-time jobs for Henry County residents, 70% of whom currently work outside of the county.

“This is an opportunity for them to work closer to home and make a comparable salary,” he said.

Legislation introduced in the General Assembly in previous years called for building six destination casino resorts around the state, which would generate an economic impact of $2 billion a year.

Clark cited a straw poll the Georgia Republican Party conducted during last year’s GOP primary that showed overwhelming public support for putting legalized gambling before voters in a statewide referendum.

“I don’t think the legislature should be legislating morality,” he said. “I think the citizens of Georgia need to decide.”

But Paul Smith, executive director of the Christian public policy organization Citizen Impact, said the deck would be stacked in any voter referendum on gambling by well-heeled industry lobbyists able to underwrite an expensive campaign in favor of legalization.

Mike Griffin, public affairs representative for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, said any tax revenue the state could bring in from legalized gambling would be more than offset by the social costs.

“When gambling increases, crime goes up, bankruptcies go up, addiction goes up,” he said. “Jobs go down, savings go down, and spending on necessities goes down.”

Several members of the committee said a key question that will occupy their upcoming debate over legalizing gambling will be how to allocate the state’s share of the proceeds.

Rep. Yasmin Neal, D-Jonesboro, suggested the General Assembly consider using tax revenue from gambling to recover some of the federal dollars the state will lose because of spending cuts by the Trump administration.

Others favored putting the funds toward health care or using it for education along the lines of the Georgia Lottery, which steers tax revenue from ticket sales to Georgia’s HOPE Scholarships and pre-kindergarten programs.

Committee members who have backed legalizing gambling during past sessions countered the moralistic arguments against it by asserting that gambling is already widespread in Georgia. However, it is unregulated and the state isn’t benefitting in the form of tax revenue.

“My effort is not to expand or encourage but to regulate and put guardrails around things already happening in this state,” said Rep. Marcus Wiedower, R-Watkinsville, the committee’s chairman.

A resolution Wiedower sponsored this year calling for a constitutional amendment to legalize sports betting in Georgia remains alive for lawmakers to consider next year. The study committee has until Dec. 1 to issue recommendations.