Sports Betting Faced Long Odds
The Georgia House of Representatives passed 75 bills on Crossover Day, setting a new record, according to Chris Reilly, Speaker Burns’s chief of staff. Not among them was the constitutional amendment required to authorize enabling legislation for sports betting in the Peach State.
The House Rules Committee, responsible for determining which bills reach the floor for a vote, met multiple times throughout the day to add bills for consideration. Around 7:30 PM, they reconvened to add the enabling legislation for sports gambling. A short time later, they returned to add the constitutional amendment (CA), which would require 120 votes to pass—meaning many Democrats would need to join Republicans in voting for approval.
If passed, the CA would then go to Georgia voters for approval in a ballot referendum.
Among conservatives in the majority caucus, long faces and hesitant body language quickly signaled that a significant number were uncomfortable casting a vote on the measure. Some openly declared their opposition as they left the Rules Committee room. I joked with the bill’s sponsor, Marcus Wiedower, that I’d be praying for him as he made his way back to the House chamber.
I approached a small group of members huddled together, strategizing on how best to express their opposition to leadership and whether they should sign up to speak against the legislation when Speaker Burns called it for debate. One representative shared a story about a longtime constituent who had told him he’d known him since childhood and that his father would be ashamed of him if he voted for the bill. Others, particularly those from districts hours away from Atlanta, spoke about pastors who had threatened to back primary challengers over this single issue.
HB 686 and HR 450 had only been introduced on February 28—less than a week before Crossover Day. While it’s not impossible for a bill or resolution to pass in such a short time, it is rare.
Democratic Minority Leader Carolyn Hugley was a co-sponsor of HR 450, signaling that the effort likely had significant Democratic support. What was less clear was whether a majority of Republicans wanted to move it forward.
We’ve all seen TV shows portraying congressional Whips as powerful figures who twist arms to secure votes. In my time in the House, it didn’t work that way. When we were “whipped” on a bill, no one told us how to vote—they simply asked how we planned to vote so leadership could avoid the embarrassment of a bill failing on the floor. Even if a measure had the 91 votes needed to pass, it was still rare for it to get a vote if too many Republicans opposed it.
I can’t say for certain whether that was the case here, as official whip counts are strictly confidential. But the body language in the chamber told its own story.
After the 75th bill of Crossover Day passed and was sent to the Senate, with HB 686 and HR 450 still uncalled, Speaker Burns looked out over the chamber and said, “Okay, members, unless one of y’all has a bill, I don’t have one.” He then congratulated the House for completing so much work in a single day.
Does this mean sports betting is dead? For this year, the answer is most likely yes. But there’s always next year—and I’m willing to bet a whole bunch of lobbyists are about to make a lot of money over the next 12 months.
