In Georgia: Pass Sports Betting
I do not bet on sports. I was married before I really even understood the rules of football. My wife had to explain them to me. I love to watch sports, but I do not understand or keep up with the stats, fantasy football, etc.
I am mostly alone among my friends in that regard. On Sundays, a group of friends sit on my porch. Between the cigars, food, and bourbon, most of them use an app and place small bets on the games we are watching. I don’t understand it. They tend to break even.
In Georgia, it is technically unlawful to do that. I have one friend who has a bookie and uses an app that requires an offshore account for his winnings. He’s up about $20,000.00 right now. It’s actually related to a business product he is testing, but he has had to use offshore banks because Georgia makes it impossible.
In Georgia, one can openly carry their lawfully acquired machine gun into grocery store without bringing about the downfall of society, but the sports bets pretty much everyone is already doing will collapse society if made legal.
I oppose a casino in Georgia. I think Las Vegas is in the desert for a reason. Casinos are a signal that the government has given up trying to solve problems.
Sports betting is not a casino. It has been going on since ancient times. It is happening in Georgia right now. It is a different issue than the legalization of drugs because no one is getting behind the wheel high on a wager. Allowing sports betting because people are already doing it is a fundamentally different argument than allowing recreational marijuana because people are already doing it.
Opponents want to lump them together.
I believe gambling is a big problem. I think a lot of people get in over their head with it. In Georgia, I see poor people spending piles of money on lottery tickets in hopes of a one-off chance of winning. Sports betting has better odds. One is allowed, and the other is not.
It’s time for the Georgia legislature to approve sports betting in Georgia. It’s already happening. Stop criminalizing a multi-thousand-year-old communal activity already happening even under the Gold Dome among the legislators themselves.
Regulate it. Tax it. Allow it. Kill the casino. Allow wagers on UGA’s upcoming season. We only slide down a slippery slope if we choose to. We can choose sports betting without choosing casinos and recreational weed. We can make that choice. We should.
Well, since like your friends sitting on a porch, if nobody is enforcing it its already legal. It is similar to taking your phone out at a concert and taking video. This practice used to be severely punished at the concert and people removed. Axle Rose stopped an entire concert because he saw someone recording. BUT nowadays, everyone has a phone and is recording and they don't enforce it although it says on the ticket "No Video recording of any kind.."
Just like many dumb laws such as in Atlanta, you can't park your horse on a sidewalk on Sundays or walk backwards on Saturday. So why waist time and resources making a bill legalizing something that nobody enforces as wrong nor cares about.
People might OK horse racing in Gorgia if they experienced a trip to Hong Kong racetracks, Happy Valley and ShaTin, which I recall are open two days a week. I went a few times as a guest of the American Club, which has a large skybox and had a great time. Races ran every half hour. After each race, we went to the buffet to get food and wine. Then we looked at the betting odds screens for the next race and decided on which horses to bet. Then we crossed the hallway to the betting windows. I always bet KH$50 (or U.S.$4.15). Then we went back to the air-conditioned skybox and watched the race. Some stepped out to the bleachers. As you may have figured out, I'm not a gambler, but had I lived in HK, I would have joined a club with a skybox at ShaTin and spent most Saturday or Sunday afternoons out there.
The tracks are owned by the Hong Kong jockey club, a charity founded in 1884, which I think also controls betting on the horses and gives the profits of both to charity. Being named to the Board of Stewards is one of the most prestigious appointments in Hong Kong. https://corporate.hkjc.com/corporate/english/who-we-are/board-of-stewards.aspx Jockey Club website. https://corporate.hkjc.com/corporate/english/who-we-are/purpose-and-core-values.aspx
If there's going to be horse racing in Georgia, then I think that the organizing it along the lines of the Hong Kong jockey club is the way to go.