SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - With $1.7 billion projected to be wagered on the Super Bowl, Georgia’s sports gambling scene remains illegal, but companies like PrizePicks and Underdog Fantasy classify themselves as “skill-based games” to bypass gambling’s “game of chance” designation.

WTOC spent Wednesday at the State Capital during the Georgia General Assembly and spoke with lawmakers about the future of gambling in the Peach State.

Several state legislators we spoke with said they had experience of them or somebody they know betting on sports.

Moms Against Gambling

Jeanne Seaver, founder of Moms Against Gambling, believes legalizing sports gambling creates problems.

“Prize picks has their corporate headquarters here in Georgia. I don’t get that when gambling is illegal,” Seaver said.

According to the National Library of Medicine, studies show that one in five people with a gambling disorder have attempted suicide, and gambling has the highest suicide rate across all addictions.

“It’s something people need to be aware of but they aren’t,” Seaver said.

Lawmakers see economic opportunity

Democratic State Senator Derek Mallow of Chatham County, who has experience gambling with his brother in Illinois, discussed the economic benefits of sports gambling with WTOC at the State Capitol building Wednesday.

“We’ve been discussing and debating this since I’ve been in the house, now I’m in the senate for four years. We can absolutely get it done, it’s currently unregulated and people are doing it, guess what? We’re missing out on tax revenue in this state where we could use it to fund education, we could fund addiction programs,” Mallow said.

New trend to gambling: prediction markets

Lawmakers said they were unaware of the new trend of prediction markets, which allow gambling on political or real world events beyond sports.

“We don’t want to take away anybody’s rights or freedoms, but we do want to have guardrails to make sure they have protections,” Mallow said.

When asked about prediction markets, Seaver said they bring “corruption” to mind.

These markets remain unregulated and allow betting on events like the next Democratic presidential nominee or the length of the Super Bowl halftime show.

Mallow said the General Assembly is close to making a decision on how to regulate these new gambling markets.

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