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Sports betting remains illegal in Georgia as efforts during the 2025 legislative session failed to get a bill through either chamber of the General Assembly, a familiar pattern that has seen several years of industry optimism followed by lawmakers failing to pass any legislation.
Advocates for legalizing sports betting and land-based casinos believe the state would benefit from the millions of dollars in additional tax revenue as a former North Carolina lawmaker and gaming regulator from Tennessee expressed support legalization.
Tom Lee, former vice-chair of the Tennessee Sports Wagering Council and partner at Nelson Mullins in Nashville, said Georgia and Tennessee were similar in that both had run a successful lottery for many years.
However, a lottery and its staff are essentially contract managers.
“I say that in a complementary fashion,” Lee said “That is a big part of what state government does… manages contracts with entities to accomplish the purposes of the state. When our sports betting law took effect in 2019, it was initially under the regulatory control of the lottery.”
Lee cited the Tennessee Education Lottery’s decision to publish rules having to do with advertising as an example of how regulations governing lotteries may not translate to overseeing online or retail sports betting.
Those regulations required that every sports-betting operator had to show, 15 days in advance, a copy of every ad they would produce and put on the air for prior clearance by the lottery.
Lee said that made perfect sense because in that contract environment, the lottery was accustomed to working with a single advertising agency that was putting forward the image of the lottery in every advertisement.
“That’s impossible, and maybe even unconstitutional, in a regulated environment with ten (operators) at one time,” said Lee, adding that at one time Tennessee had 16 mobile sports licensees, which is now 12.
In an appearance before Georgia lawmakers to advocate for sports betting, Lee stressed there are differences between these roles, and you need to make sure if you move into the regulated sports-betting business that you have people in place that understand those differences.
Lee admitted that he wished he addressed the issue more thoroughly of why Tennessee wants to legalize online sports betting. With Republican Governor Bill Lee’s signature, sports betting became legal on July 1, 2019, creating a market with only mobile and online wagering.
From his standpoint as a regulator, Lee admitted that he was “more reluctant than others.”
“You may wish to heed customer demand to serve your constituents. I always say that legislators are the expert at one particular thing, and that is understanding the emotional intensity of your constituents, what they care about, and how much. That’s a natural response for you.”
Georgia House Panel Studies Gambling
Lee testified before the House Study Committee on Gaming. The committee began its perennial debate on July 28 over whether and how gambling should be legalized in Georgia, with a hearing that focused on casino gaming.
On Monday (August 25), the committee held its second meeting taking testimony from Jason Saine, a former Republican North Carolina State Representative, as well as executives from Wynn Resorts, Bally’s Corp., and Boyd Gaming on the potential for sports betting and casino gambling in Georgia.
Saine encouraged lawmakers to adopt legal sports betting in Georgia, noting there was no political fallout for supporting a gambling bill in neighboring North Carolina.
“We saw it in polling,” Saine said. “I come from a ruby red (district). I’m a Republican and about 73 percent said they didn’t care or supported sports betting.”
North Carolina officially launched mobile and online sports betting on March 11, 2024. Unlike in neighboring Tennessee, the North Carolina State Lottery Commission regulates sports betting.
More than $116m in tax revenue was generated from online and retail sports betting in North Carolina in fiscal year 2024-2025. Saine said those results outpaced early financial estimates of $65m.
Tennessee, which is now in its fifth full year of legal sports betting, generated $97.1m in taxes last year. Lee said the state was on pace for about $108.7m in tax revenue this year.
“You can do things with $100m every year. You’re not going to balance your budget on it,” Lee said.
In July 2023, Tennessee became the first U.S. state to tax sports betting based on handle rather than revenue. The state implemented a 1.85 percent tax on total handles, replacing the previous 20 percent on gross gaming revenue (GGR).
“That’s cleaner for us and truthfully it’s generated more revenue,” Lee said.
North Carolina taxes sports betting GGR at 18 percent, Saine said.
“We think we’ve hit a sweet spot in that tax percentage,” Saine told Georgia lawmakers. “At 18 percent, it’s a little high for my taste, but it is what we went with to get an agreement.”
The study committee will meet two more times before presenting its finding to the General Assembly.
The Georgia General Assembly is scheduled to convene in Atlanta on January 12 and adjourn on April 6. So, if a bill were to pass the legislature, the earliest Georgia voters could be able to approve sports betting or land-based casino is by ballot initiative in November 2026.
Responsible Gaming
Lee urged lawmakers to take responsible gambling seriously should they move forward with gaming.
“I think we underestimated it in Tennessee,” Lee said. “What I mean is, I think we underestimated the need and, to be very candid with you, the private market that supports persons who need counseling and treatment. We have a robust market in terms of alcohol and drug abuse treatment, but they aren’t the same.”
“It’s not a priority of the federal government,” he added.
Lee told lawmakers that if they stepped into the shoes of regulators, they would want federal funding for problem gambling to be a priority. He also cautioned that if they allow sports betting in Georgia, they “will indeed see an increase in addiction.”
“I tell my students at Vanderbilt University all the time about alcohol addiction and try as some of us did when we were in college, none of us can drink enough Budweiser to become material to the company,” said Lee, who teaches gaming law.
“But you can gamble enough to become material to a betting operator,” he added. “People who wager over seven figures, they are some of these people who are material to gambling companies.”
