Georgia voters should get to decide whether to legalize sports gambling, an influential state senator argued Thursday, as he rolled out a different vision for sports betting than the one being pushed by local pro sports teams.
Georgia sports executives have been urging lawmakers to legalize the practice outright, saying voters already approved the Georgia Lottery decades ago and that the funds earned from sports betting can go to the prekindergarten and college scholarship programs already supported by the state lottery.
But Senate Regulated Industries Committee Chairman Bill Cowsert, an Athens Republican, has different destinations for the funds in mind and said authorizing sports betting as part of the lottery without giving voters a voice would be “extremely deceptive.” He said that’s not what Georgia voters thought they were approving in 1992 when they passed a constitutional amendment authorizing a lottery.
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