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Could Slots Come to Underground Atlanta?

One of the many proposals for Underground Atlanta, a troubled twelve-acre retail and entertainment complex in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, is a gambling establishment filled with some fifty-five hundred slot machines. The biggest problem with this bid? Slots are not currently legal in Georgia, where the only officially-permitted form of gambling is the state lottery.

Promoters are trying to turn Underground Atlanta into a glitzy casino resort, to the tune of four hundred million dollars. Many city residents and lawmakers who have watched the complex change hands several times over the years and rise and fall in reputation and public perception are eager to see something substantial made of the space and resources. But the law against slot games is a major barrier to forward progress. The state lottery funds college scholarships for needy students, and is currently the only legalized gambling allowed in Georgia. But John Aderhold and Dan O’Leary, the business partners behind the Undergroud Atlanta casino proposal, believe that they may have found the ticketto getting around this legislative hurldle.

First of all, they claim, the gambling devices at the Underground would not be true “slot machines” – they would only be slot-like terminals. Secondly, they support a constitutional amendment that would pledge half the revenues from the machines into the lottery coffers. Additionally, the developers are claiming that the new complex would bring two thousand jobs and almost three billion dollars a year in tourism to the state – two badly-needed commodities. O’Leary’s argument is that other states nearby have their hands in the proverbial honey pot of legalized gambling… why should Georgia not do so as well?

Back to February 2009 Archive.