ATLANTA, Ga. — Keisha Lance Bottoms’ election as governor has put casino gambling back on the table in Georgia, where lawmakers have argued over the idea for years without sending it to voters.
During the campaign, Bottoms said she would ask Georgians to approve a constitutional amendment allowing casino gaming, with part of the money set aside to guarantee pre-K for every 4-year-old and to support early learning. Her education plan estimated casinos could bring in about $300 million to $500 million a year.
That plan also calls for making kindergarten mandatory and full-day statewide, and it says universal pre-K could take as many as 2,600 more classrooms and 2,600 each of lead and assistant teachers. Expansion would start in counties with the longest waiting lists and widest gaps before spreading across the state.
The governor cannot make it happen alone. Under the Georgia Constitution, an amendment must clear both the House and Senate by a two-thirds vote before it can appear on a statewide ballot, and lawmakers would also have to write rules for licensing and regulating casinos. Democrats will control the state House next year, but Republicans keep a narrow edge in the Senate.
Supporters see an opening. Officials at EchoPark Speedway in Henry County still hope to build a casino-anchored resort with retail and housing near the track, a project the speedway has pegged at about $1 billion with 4,000 to 5,000 construction jobs and about 2,500 permanent jobs. Those are the speedway’s own projections.
Opposition remains firm. Religious groups and others worried about addiction and gambling harm have long fought expansion, and those concerns were aired again at a 2025 legislative study committee hearing on gaming. Nationally, the American Gaming Association has counted commercial or tribal casinos as legal in 42 states.
Gambling policy watchers say 2028 is the earliest realistic target for a ballot question. Lawmakers return to the Capitol in January.
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