Sports betting struck out again this year in the General Assembly.
The state House of Representatives passed 75 bills Thursday in the daylong flurry of activity known as Crossover Day, the annual deadline for legislation to clear either the House or Senate to remain alive for the year. But sports betting wasn't among them.
Also left by the wayside when lawmakers gaveled out Crossover Day shortly before 11 p.m. was a Senate bid to deny state funding to Georgia K-12 public schools, colleges and universities that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), legislation in the House overhauling the process the state uses to compensate the wrongfully convicted, and a Senate bill exposing banking institutions to lawsuits if they deny services to customers because of the way they exercised their rights under the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
Legislation to ban mining adjacent to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and require Georgia Power to pass along the costs of power-hungry data centers to operators of those facilities rather than residential and small business customers never made it out of House committees to reach the floor of the chamber.
This year's push for online sports betting came in the form of a proposed constitutional amendment placing the issue on the statewide ballot next year and a separate "enabling" bill containing details on how the industry would operate in Georgia. Both made it through the House Rules Committee Thursday night, but Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, did not put them on the floor for a vote before Crossover Day came to an end.
"I'm disappointed," Rep. Marcus Wiedower, R-Watkinsville, chief sponsor of both measures, said after the gavel fell. "A lot of work went into this. I thought it was a good measure."
Supporters of legalizing sports betting have tried to get a statewide referendum through the General Assembly every year since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2018 legalized gambling on sports in states other than New Jersey and Nevada. Opponents - spearheaded by religious groups - have argued sports betting would lead to an increase in crime and problem gambling.
The Senate spent much of the winter focused on controversial topics, including guns and race. DEI policies -- a hot button for President Donald Trump -- were also a vehicle for Republican outrage in Georgia, where the Senate's Republican leadership had been pushing for a ban in schools and colleges.
Senate Bill 120, which was the subject of bitter hearings and press conferences in recent weeks, would have punished public educational institutions that had implemented DEI policies by withholding state funding.
The bill's chief sponsor, Sen. Marty Harbin, R- Tyrone, called such policies an "erosion of meritocracy." But the measure's critics said DEI helps Black students and other historically marginalized people integrate and succeed.
"People died, people were lynched, all kinds of things happened in this country that caused people that were descendants of slaves to not have an equal opportunity," said Roger Bruce, a former Democratic state representative who came to the Capitol for a protest.
SB 120 was scheduled as the final bill for debate in the Senate Thursday night, but the leadership ended the legislative day just before calling it up.
Another controversial culture war bill also failed to pass the Senate, although it did get a hearing and a vote on the floor.
Senate Bill 57 would have punished banks that decide not to do business with companies due to disagreement about social issues, a custom that critics call "debanking."
An example offered in a legislative hearing last month was Daniel Defense. The Georgia-based firearms manufacturer became a target of criticism after one of its rifles was used in the 2022 mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The founder and chairman, Marty Daniel, testified that two banks dropped his company in quick succession, costing him $1 million each on lawyers and fees.
The bill triggered a heated debate on the Senate floor Thursday. Democrats were opposed and so were a critical mass of Republicans who worried about the potential impact on local banks. The bill got just 13 votes in favor, all Republicans, with a bipartisan opposition of 43 votes.
The House passed resolutions Thursday night to compensate five Georgians who spent years behind bars after being wrongfully convicted of crimes. However, the House did not take up a separate bill to remove the General Assembly from the process of compensating wrongfully convicted Georgians. Instead, claims for compensation would be heard by administrative law judges, who would make a recommendation to the chief justice of the state Supreme Court.
Sports betting wasn't the only cause supporters have pushed for years in the General Assembly that fizzled again in 2025. Two bills that called for either placing a five-year moratorium on mining near the Okefenokee Swamp or banning mining altogether didn't get out of the House Natural Resources & Environment Committee.
Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals is seeking state permits to open a titanium dioxide mine along Trail Ridge on the southeastern edge of the Okefenokee. Supporters say mining would draw down water levels in the swamp, threatening the largest blackwater swamp in North America and the tourist dollars it brings to the region.
"When you lose the peat from the dried-up ground, we're going to have terrible fires like they did in Southern California," Rep. Darlene Taylor, R-Thomasville, the bills' chief sponsor, said during a hearing last week.
Opponents said the mine would bring much-needed jobs and boost the local tax digest in an economically distressed part of the state.
Like sports betting and protecting the Okefenokee, the fight over the data centers bill also was left over from last year.
While the rapid growth of data centers in Georgia unquestionably represents a boost to the state's economy, environmental and consumer advocacy groups have warned the vast amounts of electricity they consume threaten to further drive up electric rates. They cited a series of Georgia Power rate increases during the last couple of years to cover rising fuel costs and the completion of two additional nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle.
Gov. Brian Kemp vetoed a bill the General Assembly passed last year that would have temporarily suspended a state sales tax exemption aimed at attracting data centers to Georgia after business interests objected to the measure. Opponents to this year's version of the bill in the Senate Regulated Industries Committee argued that the state Public Service Commission (PSC) should oversee data centers rather than the legislature.
The PSC voted in January to prohibit the Atlanta-based utility from passing on the costs of serving new large-load customers including data centers to residential customers. But supporters of the data center bill called the commission's new rule worthless because it's full of loopholes.
While the data centers bill never got out of the committee, the Regulated Industries Committee did approve a second energy measure bringing back the Georgia Consumer Utility Counsel, a watchdog agency that was disbanded in 2008 amid budget cuts brought on by the Great Recession. However, the full Senate didn't take up the measure on Crossover Day.
