There’s a new suitor in the crowd of casino companies eager to extend their brands into Georgia: the Seminole Tribe. It wants to build a Hard Rock International casino in 2018, opposite Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where the Atlanta Falcons will play. Hard Rock CEO James Allen said the company would build the 
hotel even without gambling but “Hard Rock could be your solution.” Whoever gets the primary Atlanta license had better bring a big checkbook: The proposed license fee is $1 billion, while the five other casinos would only require $200 million upfront.
Reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “The companies have made an effort to sell themselves as legitimate and transparent businesses that welcome robust regulations,” and won’t require state handouts to do business in the Peachtree State. Boyd Gaming CEO Keith Smith balked at the idea of a high tax rate but preached the gospel of how casino amenities can enrich the wider community. He kept his message simple, saying, “We’re not looking 
for anything other than approval to be legal.” Legislators pressed him on the topic of daily fantasy sports, spurring Smith to say, “This is a form of gambling. I am not opposed to daily fantasy sports, but I am opposed to unregulated forms of gambling. Games of skill require the participant to do something, shoot a basketball through a hoop. Daily fantasy sports you don’t control the outcome.”
Church groups predictably weighed in against casinos, brandishing such bogeymen as sex trafficking and pathological gambling. “The biggest losers will be the children in the state of Georgia, the very ones who would be the very beneficiaries of expanded gambling in Georgia,” sniffed the Baptist Convention‘s Mike Griffin, alluding to the HOPE Scholarships gambling is intended to rescue. “I certainly hope our people aren’t going to sell themselves for 30 pieces of silver,” Griffin added, likening the electorate to Judas Iscariot, in a particularly low blow.
Lawmakers have until Dec. 1 to recommend gambling expansion to their colleagues. However, it looks like they’ll duck out and issue a noncommital “fact-finding” report. With the horseracing industry lobbying to be allowed into Georgia and legislators pondering whether to regulate DFS, they’ll have a lot of gaming-issues on their plate when they reconvene next year.
* At the current pace, DFS will be regulated at the state level long before Congress gets around to doing anything. (One has come to expect contemptibly little from Capitol Hill.) New York, Minnesota and Illinois have bills in the hopper, with New Jersey soon to join them with “one of the strictest regulatory authorities in the world,” according to state Sen. James Whelan (D). “I don’t believe we should impede one’s enjoyment of fantasy sports. However, we have an obligation to ensure that fantasy sports competition is fair, impartial, and transparent to everyone.”
Empire State Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (D), author of the New 
York bill, took a similarly hard line. “This is an unregulated industry with a great deal of money in play. We should regulate fantasy sports the same way we oversee racing and the lotteries. It is our responsibility to safeguard against compulsive and underage wagering, money laundering and identity fraud.” Warning to Washington: The taxation-and-regulation train is leaving the station; better hurry if you want to get on board.
