Gov. Nathan Deal says he has no intention on gambling on casinos in Georgia.
His reaction comes after an
Atlanta Journal-Constitution report on a Georgia Lottery Corp. study that said three casinos with a total of 10,000 gaming terminals could generate nearly $1 billion per year in revenue for the state as soon as 2014.
The governor ordered a crackdown on illegal online gambling at Internet cafes in August, and he has no interest in seeing other types of gambling in Georgia, a spokesman told the paper.
“There will not be an expansion of gambling under his watch,” spokesman Brian Robinson said in a statement Thursday to the Journal-Constitution.
“[Deal] has focused his attention on the report’s finding that there are 10,000 illegal slot machines operating in Georgia, with each machine taking in approximately $200,000 and paying out $100,000 per week,” Robinson said. “The governor is concerned that these illegal machines divert millions of dollars away from the Georgia Lottery and the struggling HOPE [scholarship] and pre-k programs."
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