A few different measures to legalize sports betting in Georgia recently failed on the state's crossover day. The failures appeared to signal an end to sports betting legalization hopes for the state in 2023.
Despite those failed efforts, House Speaker Jon Burns recently shared comments suggesting that a longshot effort to legalize sports betting could still occur before the end of the legislative session this month. While none of the bills to legalize sports wagering passed into the opposite chamber on crossover day, sports betting language could be tacked onto a different bill that did successfully pass last week.'
“We have a 40-day session last time I checked, and we're going to have a 40-day session this year,” Burns said at an Atlanta Press Club luncheon, per Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We don't close the door on anything. We're going to continue to talk.”
Don't bet on it
While Burns suggests sports betting efforts aren't dead, it would come as a significant surprise if a sports betting measure passed in 2023. Neither the House nor the Senate seemed overly receptive to various sports betting bills on crossover day. Would enough change in a couple of weeks for that to flip?