The push to legalize casino gaming in Georgia could be renewed in the coming legislative session. This time, though, backers are aiming to put the fate of the question in the hands of Georgia. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), during a Sunday interview, criticized Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams, who lost the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election and has since repeatedly made claims of voter.

ATLANTA - A proposal asking Georgia voters whether to legalize casinos, horse racing and sports betting in the Peach State is back on the table in the General Assembly.

The House Regulated Industries Committee approved a resolution Monday calling for a statewide referendum on all three forms of legalized gambling. The same panel approved a gambling vote in March, but it failed to reach the House floor for a vote before lawmakers took a three-month break to discourage the spread of coronavirus.

While that seemed to doom the measure for this year, it’s back up for debate during the final week of the 2020 legislative session because supporters inserted it into another proposed constitutional amendment identical to legislation that already had gained final passage.

Lawmakers have been debating legalized gambling in Georgia for years, arguing among other things that voters deserve the chance to decide the issue once and for all.

“Whether you’re for or against the bill, allow the people to vote,” Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, a leading supporter of legalized gambling, told committee members Monday.

Stephens, chairman of the House Economic Development and Tourism Committee, has pitched legalized gambling throughout the years-old debate on the issue as a way to attract tourists and conventions to Georgia.

The state needs a boost to its economy particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced businesses across Georgia to close their doors, he said.

Stephens said casinos, racetracks and sports betting also would inject needed additional revenue into Georgia’s HOPE Scholarships and pre-kindergarten programs.

The percentage of student tuition HOPE covers has been declining in recent years because of pressure on the lottery-funded program’s revenues resulting from growing enrollment in Georgia’s public colleges and universities.

The proposed constitutional amendment would create a fund that would cover the difference between HOPE scholarship awards and the actual cost of tuition for Georgia students from families earning below 50% of the state’s median income, Stephens said. A separate fund supported by gambling proceeds would help prop up the state’s budget reserves, he said.

If voters approve the statewide referendum, Stephens noted, no casino, racetrack or sports betting parlor could be built in a community without the approval of local voters in a second referendum.

“It can’t come to your backyard until your backyard wants it,” he said.

As has been the case since Georgia lawmakers started talking about legalizing gambling, opposition has been spearheaded by faith-based groups.

Virginia Galloway, regional field director of the Duluth-based Faith and Freedom Coalition, said gambling brings crime and corruption to states where it’s legal.

“Any state that’s got gambling in it, you probably wouldn’t want to live,” Galloway told the committee. “I don’t want my state to become Louisiana, New Jersey [or] Illinois.”

The measure the House committee passed Monday is one of two 11^th-hour efforts in the General Assembly to move forward on legalized gambling. A bill that would allow sports betting in Georgia cleared a state Senate committee last Friday.

There have been small pushes in the state of Georgia over the last several years to legalize casino gambling, but not until last week has there been any sort of progress in the state capitol. It is a very small step, but on Friday, March 1st, the House Economic Development and Tourism Committee unanimously passed a resolution that would put the decision on casino gambling to the people in next year’s elections.

House Resolution 327 is quite simple: it would allow voters in the November 2020 election to vote on whether or not they would approve of resort casinos in the Peach State. The summary of the Resolution is as follows:

A RESOLUTION proposing an amendment to the Constitution so as to authorize the General Assembly to provide by law for the local authorization of a limited number of licensed destination resort facilities casino resorts within the state; to authorize the operation and regulation of limited casino gaming within the state; to provide for related matters; to provide for the submission of this amendment for ratification or rejection; and for other purposes.

The Resolution’s sponsor, Ron Stephens (R – Savannah), who is also the chairman of the committee that passed it, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “This bill does one thing and one thing only. It allows the public to finally make a decision on whether they want to have destination (gaming) resorts or not.”

The Resolution’s success in the committee may have been helped by House Speaker David Ralston’s comments on Georgia Public Broadcasting’s “Lawmakers” the previous day.

“I have some serious concerns, on a personal level, on gambling. But I have to set those aside and recognize there’s actually a tremendous amount of support around the state for having one or two casinos here in Georgia,” he said.

Ralston added that he’s “hearing from House members and people around the state that there’s an appetite to let the people vote” on gambling.

Atlanta Georgia Casinos

Earlier in the week, a spokesman for Governor Brian Kemp told the AJC that he feels similarly to Ralston. He does not like gambling, but “hardworking Georgians will have the ultimate say if a constitutional amendment is placed on the ballot.”

The viewpoints on both sides are largely what one would expect in the gambling debate. Those for casinos anticipate the jobs, investments, and tourist/convention traffic resort properties could bring, while those against gambling are worried about crime and addiction.

In Georgia, though, the biggest reason why lawmakers are becoming more amenable to the idea of casino gambling is to fund the HOPE Scholarship, a program which funds state pre-K programs and provides students with partial tuition for in-state colleges and universities. Proceeds from the lottery pay for the HOPE Scholarship, but the program has become so successful over the years that funds have dwindled. As a result, benefits have been cut and more recently, academic rigor requirements have been put in place in order to make the scholarship more difficult to earn.

Georgia Casino Vote Results

Gaming tax revenue from casinos would be used to bolster the HOPE Scholarship.