Atlanta, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Wednesday is the last day for sports fans to fill their NCAA supports before the official start of March Madness. Atlanta will host a handful of Sweet 16 games and Elite 8 next week, but with online sports betting that apparently went to the legislature for another year, all they can do is look.
The adoption of a bill in the current legislative session would not have been the law in time for fans to bet on this year’s tournament, but for many, frustration is developing with the constant denial of legalized online sports games.
“You must have regulations, but you must also let people decide what they want to do,” said Otis Stansberry, an Atlanta resident.
Standberry, a passionate sports fan, recently moved to Georgia from Nevada, a sports game center and the first state to legalize the practice.
“It was really fun to bet and have a good time with some of the guys,” he said about his stay there. “This is the only thing that is missing here in Atlanta. So they really need to legalize the game.”
Stansberry finds strange that Atlanta welcomes some of the first sporting events in the world, but does not allow spectators and residents to bet on them. In addition to next week NCAA tournament matches, Atlanta will host a series of World Cup football matches in 2026 and the NFL Super Bowl in 2028, an event they previously organized.
But online sports betting has become a flash point problem for many at the State Capitol. Over the past four years, legislators have attempted and failed to convince enough of their colleagues to put pressure for legalization. They even gave another hit this year with House Bill 450But the Bill applied almost as soon as it was introduced.
The legislators in support wish to launch part of the product of the status of online sports betting legalized to pre-k and responsible games programs. Game dependence and morality issues were the main source of opposition.
“There is no way you can sanctify moral manure, and that’s what the game is,” said Mike Griffin with Georgia Baptist Mission at the Capitol The day HB 450 was introduced. “Do we want to earn the ultimate standard for what we do and not do here in the Legislative Assembly?”
Thirty-eight states and Washington DC legalized online sports betting. In recent years, it has become a permanent industry of a billion dollars.
Tom Smith, professor of economics at Emory University, said that he could understand why there were morality questions in the debate on this subject.
“It has the potential to have negative impacts on the most vulnerable people in a community,” he said. “Do you want to put this temptation in front of these people and say that yes, you can get involved in sports betting. I think this is where the moral indignation comes into play.”
Smith does not think that the impacts on live sporting events would also be different if Georgia had to legalize online sports betting. He also said that it is unlikely to influence high -level events that the City gets whether or not legislators may come to legalization.
“The fact that you cannot make sports betting here will not harm people who go to Super Bowl in a few years, or to a brave World Series match or what you have,” said Smith.
Just because this year’s sports betting bill has not drew attention that others in the past have, it is not over. Legislators can always try to attach legislation to a bill with more potential success, as they did in 2023. The legislators then tried to join an online sports betting bill apparently condemned to another bill which recognized the Lyons Soap Box Derby as an official event of SOAP Box derby of the State.
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