Chris Boline
For a while, it looked like the popularity for Georgia Sports betting was on the rise, but not everyone is on board with its potential. Similar to Texas, a lot of people have been pushing for legal wagers in the Peach state, but something always manages to get in the way of things getting serious. Well, some disappointing news has arrived for the proponents, as another poll shows support for Georgia sports betting is dipping.
Again, this is not good and it has people worried that perhaps the discussions could end up getting tabled in the near future for betting. In the poll conducted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, only 48 percent of the people who participated in the study said that they would vote for legal sports betting. On the other side of things, 37 percent said they’d vote against, and the rest of the people polled didn’t have an opinion on the matter.
Despite that, the fact that the number for support was less than 50 percent is quite disappointing. Back in 2022, the AJC ran a similar poll and that time around, 57 percent of people said that they would be for betting and that they would vote in favor of it. With around a 10 percent drop, this has a lot of people nervous that the momentum for sports wagers in Georgia is lowering by the day.
This could be a classic case of people being frustrated with the way things have played out in the past couple of years. People are not happy that sports bets are still illegal and they’ve asked for something to be done about that. While governor Brian Kemp hasn’t been overly excited about the thought of the switch coming, he’s also been pretty against it in the past. This is a bit of a road block, but Georgia fans won’t give up on their dreams.
Fascinating findings of a new poll by @ajc on top issues in Georgia:
*Most voters want to eliminate general election runoffs
*More prefer spending budget surplus on education or health instead of tax cuts.
*48% back sports betting/37% opposedhttps://t.co/6iKVGrbXoH#gapol— Mark Niesse (@markniesse) January 24, 2023
Georgia politicians remain hopeful betting can arrive
Despite the lack of confidence from the public, Georgia politicians remain hopeful betting can arrive for the state. As we mentioned above, Kemp has said in the past that he’s not a fan of legal betting, but he’s begun to change his tune a bit since he was re-elected as governor. A big reason for that is because democratic candidate Stacey Abrams went all-in for sports betting as part of her campaign.
Kemp has backed up a bit there, though, and recently said that he’d be open to helping get things done if the right plan was put in place and things were regulated the right way. Not too long ago, fellow republican Ron Stephens voiced his hope for betting, saying that he is fully understanding of the fact that the state is leaving about $100 million worth of revenue off the table without betting being allowed.
Because of the popularity across the state, especially in Atlanta, there’s no question that sports betting would be massive. As we’ve said before, football would be huge for Georgia. With the Atlanta Falcons hoping to get back on the right track, people are constantly checking the NFL betting odds to see how this team is looking. There’s a lot of young talent and the hope is that a stud signal-caller can arrive in the area soon.
With the popularity of the NFL, we don’t have to tell you that the Super Bowl betting odds are being checked quite a bit right now, as the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles will be getting ready to dance later this month. There’s going to be countless bets being placed across the United States and across the globe for that matter. Yet in Georgia, only illegal bets will be recorded, which is a bummer.
The crib
— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) January 31, 2023
There’s still a chance Georgia betting could come this year
While a lot of people have already looked ahead to 2024, there’s still a chance Georgia betting could come this year. There’s a constitutional amendment that could ease the journey here, but it’s up in the air if the lawmakers will be able to get creative enough to make some magic happen. While people wait to see if that happens or not, we very well could see some more optimism later this year leading up to 2024.
The thing that has people up in arms is that efforts have come to try and get betting done in 2021 and 2022, but things never materialized. Whenever people in Georgia have gotten their hopes up over the past couple of years, they’ve been let down in the worst way possible. It’s easy to understand why they’ve been so upset of late, and why the new AJC poll shows lower numbers in terms of support.
That all could change if the right plan indeed is put into action and people are able to get on the same page. There’s no question that it would be a huge money maker for the state and people would also love the option to make their bets in peace without having to travel to different states. Only time will tell if Kemp and the other lawmakers in the state can fix this issue.
