2025 Georgia Codes – Page 172

(a) A person commits the offense of commercial gambling when he intentionally does any of the following
acts:
(1) Operates or participates in the earnings of a gambling place;
(2) Receives, records, or forwards a bet or offer to bet;
(3) For gain, becomes a custodian of anything of value bet or offered to be bet;
(4) Contracts to have or give himself or another the option to buy or sell or contracts to buy or sell at a future
time any gain or other commodity whatsoever or any stock or security of any company, when it is at the
time of making such contract intended by both parties thereto that the contract to buy or sell, the option
whenever exercised or the contract resulting therefrom, shall be settled not by the receipt or delivery of
such property but by the payment only of differences in prices thereof;
(5) Sells chances upon the partial or final result of or upon the margin of victory in any game or contest or
upon the performance of any participant in any game or contest or upon the result of any political nomina-
tion, appointment, or election or upon the degree of success of any nominee, appointee, or candidate;
(6) Sets up or promotes any lottery, sells or offers to sell, or knowingly possesses for transfer or transfers any
card, stub, ticket, check, or other device designed to serve as evidence of participation in any lottery; or
(7) Conducts, advertises, operates, sets up, or promotes a bingo game without having a valid license to oper-
ate a bingo game as provided by law.
(b) A person who commits the offense of commercial gambling shall be guilty of a felony and, upon convic-
tion thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than five years or by a fine
not to exceed $20,000.00, or both.

(a) A person who knowingly permits any real estate, building, room, tent, vehicle, boat, or other property
whatsoever owned by him or under his control to be used as a gambling place or who rents or lets any such
property with a view or expectation that it be so used commits the offense of keeping a gambling place.
(b) A person who commits the offense of keeping a gambling place shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of a high
and aggravated nature.