This week’s casino news is focused on the United States with three very different updates from three various states. Let’s start off in Georgia where sports betting doesn’t look like it will pass.
Georgia Sports Betting Bill Dies In The Senate
Residents of Georgia who were hoping that sports betting would be coming to the state soon will now have to wait a little bit longer. The bill that would have legalized sports betting was unable to make it past the Senate. It’s just the latest unpopular political move in the Peach State. Luckily, the bill has the opportunity to be brought back up later in the year or as early as 2022, though, it will still have to pass the vote.
Many people were expecting sports betting to be coming to the state due to the number of places that have recently legalized sports betting during the first half of 2021. Now Georgia is looking at another failed attempt. Georgia Rep. Ron Stephens did everything that he could in order to get it to pass, filing multiple gambling bills but none of them even made it to the governor.
Arizona and Kansas were two other states that were able to make some type of progress on sports betting legalization but Georgia is being left behind for now.
New York Mobile Sports Betting Doesn’t Seem Likely This Year
Gov. Andrew Cuomo hasn’t been popular this year and his favorability among sports bettors is set to tumble. He’s left out mobile sports betting to the new state budget, so it’s not likely to happen this year. This comes after he made the announcement that he was actually in favor of bringing it into the state.
Sen. Joseph Addabbo, one of the biggest proponents for gambling expansion, wasn’t all too optimistic about the bills passing during the year 2021. It was reported that he wasn’t the only person who thought that the bill isn’t going to pass this year as the general sentiment is now pessimistic.
As of right now, sports betting is allowed in the four casinos located upstate in New York but that is still a two-hour drive from New York City. Considering neighboring state New Jersey has all types of sports betting options – at casinos, at the Meadowlands and online – it really makes the Big Apple look outdated.
New Jersey Governor Expands Vaccine Eligibility
It is official: casino employees have been added to the COVID-19 vaccine after Gov. Phil Murphy was able to expand the eligibility for the shot to include all hospitality workers. The state is now doing everything in their power to get every single employee of the nine Atlantic City casinos vaccinated by Memorial Day.
It is estimated that the total count of those employees is around 25,000 people. This expanding of the vaccination eligibility comes right after the state started to slowly roll back the heavy restrictions that have been on casinos since the pandemic first began in the state.
These restrictions being lessened along with the vaccinations reaching more people should spell out good news for New Jersey. The past year has been a nightmare for the state as all casinos in Atlantic City haven’t been anywhere near their revenue levels from before the pandemic.