Are Georgia Sports Betting Benefits Overrated?

For so many, the issue of Georgia sports betting boils down to one thing: money.

This is especially true for those advocating on behalf of its legalization. These supporters argue that sports betting in Georgia is happening anyway, and that The Peach State is currently missing out on boatloads of money as a result.

They also point to the sheer number of states with some form of legal sports betting. That total will reach 40 by the end of 2025, when sports betting in Missouri is scheduled to launch. Both the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have legalized it as well.

The sheer volume of it all suggests that sports betting in the United States is a lucrative business—not just for the sportsbooks themselves, but for the states receiving percentages of the revenue. This is accurate at its core. But expectations and estimates can run too far afield, particularly when dealing with markets that have yet to introduce sports betting.

Brent Evans, a professor at Georgia College and State University, believes this phenomenon is at play in The Peach State. He has meticulously studied sports betting in the USA and believes the projections for Georgia’s revenue are over the top. “In Georgia, the windfall that the state would get in tax revenue, I think, is greatly overstated,” Evans explains to WABE, an NPR affiliate in Atlanta.

This is a fair stance to take. After all, we don’t have much specific Georgia sports betting data to work off, since it’s not officially regulated. But this does raise the question: Are these estimates actually over ambitious?

There is Clear Interest in Georgia Sports Betting Among State Residents

Any forecasting must begin with gauging the level of interest among the voting population. In the case of Georgia sports betting, this appears to be quite high.

For the second half of last year, The Peach State detected nearly 3.7 million geolocation checks at sportsbooks, according to the data company GeoComply. This essentially means that there were 3.7 million unique attempts to legally bet on sports in Georgia.

On top of that, there were close to 300,000 active sports betting accounts that people attempted to access inside the state during this span. That is over a 100 percent increase compared to the same time period during the year before.

These are the numbers that drive Georgia sports betting projections—and the arguments in favor of legalizing it.

Georgia Appears to be Leaving Millions of Dollars on the Table

With the same GeoComply report referenced above, the conductors provided estimates for marquee markets that have yet to legalize sports betting. According to them, Georgia sports betting will be worth more than $110 million in annual tax revenue by the third year of its legalization.

"These states—and their lawmakers—are also forfeiting significant tax revenue,” the report says (via Bookies.com). “Legalizing sports betting has consistently proven to be a powerful economic driver, with regulated states collectively generating billions of dollars that directly support education, infrastructure, and other essential public services.”

Determining the margin for error of these figures is impossible. There is no such thing as a one-for-one comparison. Every market is different.

Still, many are inclined to use sports betting in Ohio as a baseline. The Buckeye State has a similar population to The Peach State, with an estimated 11.9 million people to Georgia’s 11.2 million. Both markets also boast a similar number of professional sports franchises, as well as interest in both NFL and college football.

It just so happens that Ohio sports betting is working through its third year of operations. So far, in 2025, The Buckeye State has reported $44.7 million in sports betting tax revenue, with exactly one-quarter of the year being reported. Prorated across the entire 12-month calendar, this comes out to $178.8 million for all of 2025.

If we adjust for the difference in population, that would theoretically put Georgia at nearly $170 million in sports betting tax revenue by its third year of operations. Of course, this isn’t the end-all, be-all. But it does throw into question whether sports betting estimates for The Peach State are actually overshooting reality.

The Future of Sports Betting in Georgia is More Than Money

If this were merely an issue of dollars and cents, Georgia sports betting would likely be legalized already. But it’s not. Other concerns are at play.

Chief among them is the rise of reported gambling addictions. Every market with legal sports betting has reported noticeable upticks in calls to their problem gambling help lines following the integration of wagering. This is something those markets are attempting to grapple with, but it’s also one that states like Georgia have top-of-mind as they debate gambling legislation.

“Gambling addiction is absolutely a real thing,” Evans explains, “and if you make it more accessible to people, it will create some problems.”

Sports betting supporters typically answer these concerns by noting that a share of the revenue can go toward establishing and funding problem gambling programs and prevention measures. And they’re not exactly wrong. But the percentage of revenue typically dedicated to these resources is minimal—sub-5 percent or even much less.

Increasing that commitment is an obvious tweak. But then, as many note, you’re inevitably redirecting funds that, in many cases, go towards funding educational programs.

Moral of the story: There is no perfect answer. The sports betting industry is not one that traffics in absolutes. There are real upsides, and then there are real downsides. When it comes to Georgia sports betting, the goal is to maximize the former while minimizing the ladder. It so far seems like the state doesn’t feel as if it’s able to do that. Until that changes, the gambling laws in The Peach State won’t.

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