Metro-Atlanta’s six million residents enjoy easy access to Columbus via interstates 20 and 185, and the city lies along a popular route to the Gulf Coast beaches. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell, another cosponsor of House Resolution 30. “It would be a perfect place,” said state Rep. About 8.6 million people live within a two-hour drive, and 37.6 million can get there within five hours. In Lavonia, Lackey’s company has a 500-acre site along Lake Hartwell under a lease agreement. Al Williams is a co-sponsor of the resolution. City councils in all three communities have endorsed putting resort casinos in their midst. Supporters of legalized gambling have gotten off to a head start in selling Lavonia, Columbus and Midway on casinos. We don’t have anywhere for them to stop and stay.” “At some point, they’re going to stop and get gas, a Chick-fil-A sandwich and go to the bathroom. “There are people who drive through Georgia on I-75, I-85 or I-95 on their way to Florida,” he said. Siting casinos along Georgia’s north-south interstate highways is key to attracting tourists, Lackey said. Besides casinos, the resorts would include luxury hotels, entertainment venues and retail shopping. Lackey also is eyeing sites along Interstate 85 in Lavonia near the South Carolina line and along I-95 in Midway south of Savannah. It would be built along the Chattahoochee River. Smyre’s hometown is the site of one of the casinos proposed by Rick Lackey, founder of Atlanta-based City Commercial Real Estate. Calvin Smyre, D-Columbus, co-sponsor of a constitutional amendment to legalize casinos in Georgia introduced in the state House of Representatives late last month. “It gives a hometown flavor to have somebody in Georgia who would be a frontline player,” said state Rep. 84 in Liberty County is one of the targeted spots for a casino development, along with one along the Chattahoochee River in Columbus and another on Lake Hartwell near the South Carolina border, northeast of Atlanta. Georgia’s illegal gaming machine payoffs raise probability of new limits.

Sports betting takes front row in state gambling debate.

A Georgia developer who helped build The Battery, a mixed-use complex in Cobb County that includes the Atlanta Braves’ Truist Park, recently released renderings of three proposed casino resorts around the state, injecting tangible details into an issue that has been debated more often in broad generalities. This story also appeared in Capitol Beat News Serviceīut this year’s push features a different wrinkle.

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