A coalition of former lottery officials and business interests will launch a statewide campaign today to push video lottery gambling.
Dave Garrett, an Atlanta real estate developer and coalition member who was the lottery'sfirst board chairman, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that video gambling revenue would make up for the $300 million shortfall for lottery-funded HOPE scholarships and pre-k. The HOPE 20/20 Coalition also includes Cadillac Jack, a Duluth-based video gambling machine company. Garrett said the coalition will expand to include other businesses and individuals interested in protecting lottery programs.
But, the coalition's effort faces a number of difficulties: a lottery board that has seen similar proposals before and decided against moving forward; conservative Christian opposition; and a governor who opposes any expansion of gambling.
For Garrett, who says he has no personal financial interest in adopting a video lottery, the struggles of HOPE and pre-k show the need for action.
"I see this just as a natural maturation of this lottery," said Garrett, who led the campaign to create a lottery to fund educational programs in the 1990s and served a second term on the lottery board under former Gov. Sonny Perdue. "It's going to have to do some additional things in order to rebuild confidence in those programs, re-fund them and get the reserves back up and build a good platform for it to go forward."
Facing flat lottery revenues and increased demand for scholarships and pre-k slots, Gov. Nathan Deal and the General Assembly this year approved cuts to HOPE and pre-k.
Deal doesn't view video lottery gambling as a solution for a healthier HOPE and pre-k.
"No such proposal has come to our office, but the governor has strongly opposed efforts to expand gambling in Georgia," Brian Robinson, spokesman for Gov. Nathan Deal, said
But Garrett is concerned the cuts will continue if nothing changes.
"What happens as the costs continue to go up and and [there are] more and more qualified 4-year-olds and qualified students for HOPE?" he said.
The coalition's answer is video lottery terminals that supporters describe as the equivalent of an electronic scratch-off ticket. They are different from video poker machines, which are already illegal in Georgia.
"These aren't revolutionary," Garrett, whose father was a former CEO of Delta, said. "The basis of the VLT games are not fundamentally different. It's all a mathematical algorithm. It's all a function of chance."
The coalition today plans to roll out a website outlining its position and Garrett said he will then start a public relations blitz to educate Georgians on the benefits of its plan. Ideally, he said, the lottery board would approve video lottery terminals by this fall. It would then take time for the games to start and money to start flowing. Eventually, lawmakers would have to approve new legislation restoring this year's cuts to HOPE and pre-k.
Jerry Luquire, president of the Georgia Christian Coalition, said he isn't convinced the lottery board can do this on its own and that the General Assembly could need to be involved.
And, Luquire, whose group would oppose any effort to expand gambling, said given that lawmakers this year approved a bill that could legalize the Sunday sale of alcohol in stores, he does not believe they want to face voters next year with gambling on their record, too.
"They already have liquor on them, they don't want two issues on them next year," Luquire said.
Garrett is convinced the change is as simple as a lottery commission vote. He said it would be up to the lottery board to decide how and where to allow the games -- and which companies to contract with to provide them. Despite Cadillac Jack's involvement, Garrett said they are not advocating for any one company.
"The good companies are going to get their chance and they'll get their chance to prove they ought to be in there," he said, adding that he has spoken with lottery officials about his ideas. "I'm sure the lottery will do the right job."
Garrett's coalition is separate from continuing efforts by the owners of Underground Atlanta to convert the downtown shopping district into a video lottery casino, complete with hotels and restaurants.
The Underground Atlanta developers, who include Dan O'Leary and John Aderhold, are not part of the coalition, said Guy Griswold, consultant and lobbyist for Underground. They are continuing their own efforts for video lottery terminals, he said.
"We're still at it and believe we have a strong proposal that could significantly help HOPE," Griswold said. "We've got a strong partner that has been running a video lottery facility in Delaware for the past 17 years."
Underground's developers tried in 2009 to persuade the lottery board to approve regulations giving them the right to redevelop Underground Atlanta, but ultimately the board took no action.
It still might not, said Lottery Board chairman Jimmy Braswell.
"The lottery board's position has been and still is that we view this as a public policy decision," Braswell, whom Perdue named to the board. "We don't set policy, we execute policy."
But Braswell said he was not punting a decision on video lottery terminals to the General Assembly. While he's unsure if the lottery board has the legal authority to allow video lotteries -- Garrett and others are convinced the board does -- Braswell said it will take a "broad range of support for a concept like this to be done."
"The lottery board's main task is to protect the integrity and the trademark of the lottery," he said. "Before we ever consider undertaking something like this, we would have to do a lot more due diligence."
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