- Stacey Abrams showed support for legal gambling in Georgia while campaigning for being elected governor.
- Abrams explained how the tax from sports betting would be used to increase the amount of college scholarship money for average grade students through the HOPE programs.
ATLANTA – The Georgia legislature has pushed back on legal gambling since 2018 but has received recent support from Georgia Governor candidate Stacey Abrams.
During a speech on Tuesday, Abrams voiced her support for legalizing gambling and sports betting throughout Georgia, for the purpose to strengthen educational opportunities for Georgia residents.
The candidate for Ga governor talked about how the tax from sports betting revenue could be used to enhance the state lottery-funded “HOPE” program. This initiative was started in 1993 by Zell Miller who was the governor at the time.
Using Gambling Tax For Education
HOPE (Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally) has two initiatives. There is the scholarship that helps students attend private or public universities after high school graduation and the grant program that helps fund technical school.
Both of these programs have grade standards and look for students with an average GPA of 3.70 and specific SAT scores.
Abram’s proposals to extend these programs with legal gambling tax revenue would allow Georgia students to earn these scholarships with lower grades. This addition to the 1993 lottery-funded scholarship plan would target students earning grades of an average “C” level.
Past Attempts To Legalize Gambling In GA
Even if she got the ball rolling for political purposes, legal sports betting would be huge for Georgia gamblers. This call for legal gambling would also see massive economic impacts, as money states with legal gambling are collecting millions of dollars in monthly tax.
In past attempts to legalize sports betting in Georgia, the tax rate has ranged from 10% to 16%.
However, the two sports betting bills were not voted on during the 2022 legislative session. This means that even if Abrams was elected governor and continued to show full support for sports betting, it could not even be voted onto male the ballot until 2024, and sports betting could not be legal in Georgia until 2025.