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It’s a new year, and once again, Georgia is talking about a brand-new bill to legalize sports betting. If it feels like Groundhog Day, it’s because it is.
Year after year, Georgia has talked about legalizing. They’ve drafted bills. They’ve argued. And the result has been the exact same every time: nothing passes.
That’s why we’re not getting our hopes up about the latest bill. Yes, there’s one being kicked around, but we’d be shocked if it doesn’t suffer the same fate as the others. Keep reading, and we’ll update you on the situation.
House Takes Lead On New Betting Bill
House Rep. Matt Hatchett is fronting HB 910, the latest bill that would make sports betting in Georgia legal (right now it’s one of only 11 states without some form of sports wagering). Hatchett, like many bills before him, wants legalization via the Georgia Lottery. It’s the same way many bills before it were structured, hence the Groundhog Day reference.
A year ago, a bill just like this one failed to make it out of the committee. This time around, the bill is parked in the House Higher Education Committee, which isn’t exactly known for fast-tracking gambling reform.
The bill’s biggest selling point — and biggest controversy — is what it doesn’t include. HB 910 avoids a constitutional amendment altogether, a move some lawmakers insist is legally shaky territory. Georgia has spent years going back and forth on whether sports betting can be legalized with a simple statute or if voters have to weigh in. Bills have been drafted both ways, and neither approach has been able to break the logjam.
That’s why our expectations for this bill are muted. The reason nothing has been passed is because of political infighting, and this new bill does nothing to mend that. It’s the same thing, just recyled all over again.
But more than that, momentum for sports betting in Georgia is just dead right now. At the end of 2025, a House Study Committee on Gaming put out a nine-page report that somehow managed to say… nothing. No recommendations, no roadmap, no urgency. Making matters worse, Rep. Marcus Wiedower — one of the loudest sports betting advocates and the chair of that committee — resigned in October, killing the little momentum that existed for the issue.
The only glimmer of optimism came from the other side of the Capitol. A Senate study committee focused on tourism quietly suggested that legalized sports betting could help Georgia compete for major events. Think the Super Bowl, March Madness, and those types of events that draw crowds.
The committee didn’t say Georgia is missing out on those events because tourists are skipping it due to its lack of sports betting options. They framed it in a much better way: because Georgia is missing out on taxing sports betting, it has less money to bid for those events, which costs governments millions of dollars.
That’s been the only real progress for sports betting: a committee recommending it. But again, this issue will be won and lost on the issue of the constitutional amendment we brought up before. Until that’s resolved, the state and committees will continue to spin their wheels on gambling.
Bettors Aren’t Going To Wait For Georgia To Figure It Out
Here’s the funny thing about this whole ordeal: betting is still happening in the state of Georgia. Heck, that’s an entire argument for why it should be legalized. The state is missing out on tax money for a thing already happening in mass.
For the longest time, Georgia bettors got their fix via popular offshore sportsbooks. These work just as good as the well-known sports betting apps. Since they are operated from overseas, they sidestep many of the betting rules in America and Georgia.
But there’s a new way to bet in illegal states like Georgia, and this method is even more accessible: prediction markets. The likes of Kalshi and Polymarket have exploded this year once they began offering “sports contracts.” We can debate until we’re blue in the face whether this is traditional betting or not, but the reality is, sports enthusiasts are wagering on outcomes using these services.
So much so that sportsbook platforms have begun offering prediction markets. Just in the last two months, we’ve seen big players like DraftKings, FanDuel, and Fanatics come out with predictions. They’ve created new platforms just for the product and guess what? Georgia has access to all three.
For now, prediction markets are fully legal to use in Georgia. Maybe that changes in the future, but for now, this is filling the gap inside the state. Why should bettors miss out on the betting rush because it’s politicians can’t figure this out? Expect to see these platforms and offshore books continue to explode in popularity during this political standoff.
Best Betting Sites 