Georgia’s Cash Redemption Ban: The COAM Operator’s Transition Guide

Georgia’s HB 353 ends cash redemption for Class B COAM prizes on July 1, 2026, and replaces it with gift-card-based redemption. From that date, a Class B location redeems a player’s accumulated credit onto a spendable gift card — physical or digital, with terms disclosed at issuance — instead of dispensing bills. The transition is a hardware-and-process change, not a change to whether players can redeem.

For Georgia’s roughly 8,000-plus licensed Class B locations, that is the headline. The detail below is the operator’s path from a cash-dispensing setup to a compliant gift-card redemption flow.

What the ban actually prohibits

HB 353 retires cash as the redemption method for Class B COAM prizes. The defining feature of the legacy redemption cabinet — the bill dispenser — is precisely what the law removes. Redemption itself continues; the medium changes from cash to gift card.

This is a meaningful distinction for operators worried the law shuts down redemption. It does not. It standardizes redemption onto a card rail with disclosed terms and a full audit trail.

What replaces cash

A gift-card redemption kiosk validates the player’s credit and redeems it onto a spendable card. Georgia’s rules support both reloadable (light-KYC) and non-reloadable tiers — the difference is covered in our COAM gift card rules guide. Either way, the player walks out with spendable value and the venue keeps a clean digital record.

The operator’s transition checklist

Moving from cash dispensing to gift-card redemption before July 1, 2026 comes down to a short list:

• Confirm your location is a Class B COAM on the Georgia Lottery Corporation’s published list (Payline’s free eligibility lookup does this).
• Replace or convert any cash-dispensing redemption hardware with a gift-card-capable redemption kiosk.
• Make sure the kiosk produces a complete, tamper-evident audit trail of every redemption.
• Disclose gift card terms at issuance, as the rules require.
• Do it before the deadline — the demand for installs spikes hardest in the final weeks before July 1.

Why moving early wins

The cash redemption ban has a hard date, and every Class B location faces it at once. Operators who convert before the rush get installed, trained, and reconciling cleanly while later movers are still waiting in line. The economics also favor the switch: gift-card redemption deletes the float, the armored pickup, and the nightly cash count that the cabinet era required.

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