House Bill 1329, legislation aimed at regulating and taxing daily fantasy sports sites in the Peach State has failed to advance out of the House Rules Committee, which means the bill will not be heard in 2024.
Let’s go through the reasons behind this delay and its potential consequences on the online sportsbooks industry.
Wait Until Next Year
Rep. Ron Stephens and Trey Kelley, co-sponsors of HB 1329, were eager to use their bill to amend Georgia Code Title 50 to authorize and codify daily fantasy sports contests and place the authority of those DFS operators under the governance of the Georgia Lottery Corporation.
The legislation would immediately untap a brand-new revenue stream, as operators would be required to pay a non-refundable application fee of $100,000 in addition to an annual licensing fee of $1 million. The operators would also pay 20% of their adjusted gross revenues, which would be a big revenue booster for the state.
The bill articulates the definition of fantasy sports as follows: “No winning outcome is entirely based on the score, point spread, or any performance of any single actual team or combination of teams or solely on any single performance of an individual athlete or player in any single sporting event. Such a term may include contests wherein participants compete against each other and contests wherein only a single participant competes against a target score set by the fantasy contest operator. Such term shall not include any fantasy contest without an entry fee.”
And it is not as though DFS is not being played in Georgia, as it is estimated there are 250,000 active DFS accounts with games being played daily with no taxes on the operators being levied. It is considered a gray area of Georgia law but one that could have produced substantial revenue if HB 1329 was enacted.
Unfortunately, it languished too long in the House Economic Development and Tourism Committee before it advanced to the House Rules Committee. The deadline of February 29th had come and gone with the bill still sitting in committee, which meant there would be no action on the bill this year.
Casino Legislature Also Grounded
Georgia’s pro-gambling advocates did not fare well in this legislative session, as evidenced by HB 1329 running aground and joined by a casino gambling bill, Senate Resolution (SR 538), that also fell short this session.
Senator Carden Summers was the sponsor of the bill that would have brought five land-based commercial casinos to the state along with sports betting as well. But the big ticket item, according to Senator Summers, was getting the influx of casino revenue for the state’s coffers.
During a Senate committee hearing last month, Summers said, “The economic impact of sports betting probably is not going to be that great, guys. Maybe $80 million, $100 million. The economic impact of casinos will be in the billions.”
However, like the DFS bill, Summers’ initiative failed to make it out of the chamber on crossover day, February 29th, and will therefore be relegated to the legislative dustbin until next year. It appears as though Georgia will continue without these potential revenue streams for the remainder of 2024, but proponents are hoping 2025 will be much different.
