According to rumors, gambling could be coming to Georgia soon.
After Alabama lawmakers recently started considering the potential expansion of gambling, one of the largest online gambling firms held a meeting with Georgia Government officials just a few days ago to discuss the possible growth of the legal gambling options there.
On October 17th, representatives of the Entain Foundation met with a number of state lawmakers in Atlanta, Georgia, in regard to the aforementioned issue. The non-profit organization was established in the US three years ago by the international online gambling behemoth Entain, which is currently known as the owner and operator of a range of reputable world-known brands, such as bwin, Ladbrokes, and PartyPoker.
At the meeting, the Entain Foundation representatives revealed that the group has been hopeful to help the state expand and establish safe and legal gaming options across the US, and these plans apparently include Georgia.
Sports Betting Could Bring New Possibilities for the State of Georgia
For the time being, casino gambling is not legal in Georgia. Betting on horse races is also illegal in the state. Its neighboring states, however, such as North Carolina and Tennessee have already given the green light to sports betting in recent years, with the new form of gambling being also available in the state casinos.
As CasinoGamesPro previously reported, state lawmakers have considered a few proposals that would see Georgia’s legal gambling sectors grow in size but those efforts, eventually, were unsuccessful after multiple disagreements over various issues, such as the types of gambling to be legalized, revenue distribution, and potential increase of problem gambling rates. Now, Entain is hoping that local legislation may have a change of heart, so it is pushing for some changes that would see an expansion of legal gambling services in the state.
After this week’s meeting with some of the state lawmakers, the officials of Entain Foundation shared they had a good feeling about the proposed gambling expansion.
Bill Pascrell, who is one of the foundation trustees, noted that the state of Georgia has been facing some political issues associated with the former President Trump indictment, so legislators were more focused on other problems at the moment, but he felt “pretty positive” that Georgia and a few other US states could move forward with sports betting in 2024.
Some gambling market experts have shared that the addition of sports betting could be very beneficial to the state of Georgia. As mentioned above, reports say that casino gambling has not received much support so far, so sports betting could be the answer to many industry stakeholders’ prayers.
Entain is already present in the US, through a joint venture with MGM Resorts, which is called BetMGM and operates in the online sports betting and gambling sector. The service is already available in a number of states across the country, which could be useful for the joint venture to enter the Georgian market in case sports betting is ever legalized.
