In the days leading up to the biggest gambling day of the year, Super Bowl Sunday, the news out of the Georgia Senate is the recent passage of a bill that would legalize online sports betting in the state. If you’ve watched ANY sporting event lately, you’ve no doubt seen commercials offering you a possible BIG immediate return on investment if you care to make a slight wager. Once you’re signed up, you then have the opportunity to bet on just about any aspect of any game you choose. Which means there’s a lot of money being tossed back and forth between players and “The House.” (i.e., those who take the bets, not the legislative branch.) The Georgia Senators have realized that too many other states are reaping financial harvests that might as well remain here in the Peach State.

Even though this type of effort has failed in Georgia before, there’s a twist to it this time. Instead of requiring a state constitutional amendment (voted on by the proletariat), running sports gambling through the established Georgia Lottery system takes care of that potential stumbling block. The thought is that any taxes and fees raised by such an endeavor would go to the same educational programs that currently benefit from those who plunk down a few bucks hoping to hit winning numbers and collect multi-millions.

Not just anybody would be recognized as a legitimate acceptor of bets. It seems you’ll need a license for such an endeavor. Those will not only be limited, but will also be rather pricey, at least on the surface. Something to the tune of a $100,000 application fee and an annual license fee of a cool $1 million, plus a 20% income tax to the state. (However, since gambling establishments don’t usually seem to have a problem making money, I’m guessing the waiting line to garner such licenses will stretch around the block.) And some licenses could be reserved for professional sports teams and places such as the Atlanta Motor Speedway and the Masters.

If this legislation eventually becomes law, there’s a good chance you won’t even need to leave the comfort of your favorite viewing chair to make a small or even large wager on pretty much any part of a sporting event you choose. Who’s going to win the coin flip at the 50-yard line? Who’s going to hit the first home run in the game? How many free throws will the home team attempt? How many will it make? How many players will be wearing white shoes? How many fans in the stands will be overserved by the fourth inning? (Well, I’m not exactly sure of that last one, but you get the idea.)

Proponents of the concept apparently have found that Georgians illegally bet something like $5 billion last year alone on sports. I’m not quite sure how one arrives at such a number. Normally people don’t include “illegal gambling bets, winnings, and losses” on their tax returns.

Those opposed have reportedly called gambling “legalized fraud.” The thinking there, it seems, is that players have to lose in order for companies to win so bettors can’t win, and industry can’t lose. (Say what?)

I can think of one particular group that would probably be zealously opposed to Georgia legalizing gambling. And I’m pretty sure this group of small business owners is seriously under-represented as a lobbying group. All this legalization of online sports betting has had to have put a serious crimp in the income of that fraternal order of brothers known collectively as “Bookies.” If you legalize their industry, well, their stock in trade may go the way of buggy whips, landline phones, and 8-track tapes.

Legislators may not have thought this through completely. You know it’s not just the Bookies themselves who will soon be out of a job. Think of the host of their employees who will join them on the unemployment line, such as the men in their collections department. It might be hard for those guys to adapt their special persuasive skills to a more corporate setting when seeking new employment. I suppose they could put their talents to use repossessing cars or evicting people from their homes, but that could require extensive training in the how-to-be-a-little-polite-to-people department. And their tools of the trade may change. Baseball bats swung at knees might have been effective before, but that method is usually frowned upon by mortgage companies.

On another note, has anybody asked the question, “What could go wrong if sports betting is legalized in Georgia?” As a rule, history has not saluted the savoriest of characters in the gambling game. Honestly, though, what are the odds everything is going to go according to plan?

©MMXXIV. William J. Lewis, III – Freelance Writer