{"id":45045,"date":"2017-02-10T16:00:36","date_gmt":"2017-02-11T00:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=45045"},"modified":"2017-02-10T12:32:57","modified_gmt":"2017-02-10T20:32:57","slug":"georgia-pols-debate-casino-bill-with-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/georgia-pols-debate-casino-bill-with-public\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Pols Debate Casino Bill with Public"},"content":{"rendered":"

Georgia\u2019s casino bill<\/a> received its first hearing on Thursday, as the Regulated Industries Committee debated Senator Brandon Beach\u2019s (R-Alpharetta) proposal to legalize two casinos in the state.<\/p>\n

\"Brandon
Senator Brandon Beach believes that downtown Atlanta needs to be more fun if it is to be nationally competitive in the convention business. Baptist ministers aren\u2019t so sure. (Image: Bob Andres\/Atlanta Journal-Constitution)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Reception was largely positive, although, as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted, the presence of rather a large crowd of Baptist preachers in the room suggested it might not all be plain sailing for Beach\u2019s Bill.<\/p>\n

Senate Bill 79 would permit the licensing of a casino in the Metro Atlanta area and another in a smaller city, possibly Savannah or Columbus. Developers would need to guarantee investment of at least $2 billion in the Atlanta resort and a minimum of $450 million in the secondary resort.<\/p>\n

The bill is thought to be more palatable to lawmakers than last year\u2019s proposition because it has shaved the number of licenses down from five, and also because it would offer a more generous percentage of casino tax revenue to HOPE scholarship funding.<\/p>\n

It calls for a state-wide referendum in November 2018 that would ask voters whether the constitution should be amended to allow casino gaming.<\/p>\n

Is Downtown Too Dull?<\/b><\/h2>\n

Beach kicked off the hearing with some stats. A recent survey, he explained, found that 22 percent of Atlanta convention visitors said they would not come back to the city because of lack of evening entertainment.<\/p>\n

\n

“Entertainment is a big piece of getting the convention business,” said Beach. “We need to make sure we have some night time entertainment\u2026 I don\u2019t just want a casino, I want something nice,\u201d he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Senator Butch Miller (R-Gainesville) agreed, saying that Atlanta<\/a> competes with cities such as Chicago, Las Vegas, Nashville, New Orleans and San Diego for convention business, each of which have a \u201cdistinct downtown experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Erik Balsbaugh, vice president of the American Gaming Association, was on hand to explain that \u201cgaming popularity in the United States is at an all-time high,\u201d and \u201cit\u2019s more mainstream and popular than ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voices of Dissent <\/b><\/h2>\n

Not everyone was convinced, however. AJ Robinson, president of a local business organization, questioned whether the proposed casinos would be much of a boon to tourism at all.<\/p>\n

He said his organization has commissioned a study that found the majority of casino revenue comes from locals, not tourists, and he urged lawmakers to consider the social costs.<\/p>\n

And, lastly, in the interest of balance, we\u2019ll leave the final word to the Baptists, one of whom appeared to throw the entire democratic process into doubt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that we are going to let the people decide, that always seems to be the easy out,\u201d complained Mike Griffin, public affairs officer for the Georgia Baptist Mission. \u201cWe are not too far from Easter being here and that is exactly what happened to Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Georgia\u2019s casino bill received its first hearing on Thursday, as the Regulated Industries Committee debated Senator Brandon Beach\u2019s (R-Alpharetta) proposal to legalize two casinos in the state. Reception was largely positive, although, as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted, the presence of rather a large crowd of Baptist preachers in the room suggested it might not all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":45046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,13,61],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGeorgia Pols Debate Casino Bill with the Public<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Senator Brandon Beach\u2019s Georgia casino bill was opened up to public debate at a hearing in Atlanta with a (largely) positive reception.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Georgia Pols Debate Casino Bill with the Public\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Senator Brandon Beach\u2019s Georgia casino bill was opened up to public debate at a hearing in Atlanta with a (largely) positive reception.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/georgia-pols-debate-casino-bill-with-public\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-11T00:00:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-02-10T20:32:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/photos.medleyphoto.9783650.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"533\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/georgia-pols-debate-casino-bill-with-public\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/georgia-pols-debate-casino-bill-with-public\/\",\"name\":\"Georgia Pols Debate Casino Bill with the Public\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/georgia-pols-debate-casino-bill-with-public\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/georgia-pols-debate-casino-bill-with-public\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/photos.medleyphoto.9783650.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-11T00:00:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-02-10T20:32:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Senator Brandon Beach\u2019s Georgia casino bill was opened up to public debate at a hearing in Atlanta with a (largely) positive reception.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/georgia-pols-debate-casino-bill-with-public\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/georgia-pols-debate-casino-bill-with-public\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/georgia-pols-debate-casino-bill-with-public\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/photos.medleyphoto.9783650.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/photos.medleyphoto.9783650.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":533,\"caption\":\"Senator Brandon Beach believes that downtown Atlanta needs to be more fun if it is to be nationally competitive in the convention business. 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