Georgia
Georgia angler hooks unique-looking fish, snags state record 2 months after it's broken
A fisherman in Georgia is now the second angler to set a new record for the same fish in the span of two months.
Brian C. Richburg, 29, from Brunswick, Georgia, is now the official record holder for the queen triggerfish after reeling in the vibrant species on May 17, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
The angler went out with some friends, targeting mahi mahi, shellfish and wahoo, but around lunchtime the bites began to slow down, Richburg told Fox News Digital.
During that lull, Richburg started bottom fishing and, to his surprise, he reeled in something big, bright and “beautiful,” he said.
Brian Richburg has set the new record for the queen triggerfish in Georgia after reeling in a catch weighing 9 pounds, 6.24 ounces. (CRD/Georgia DNR/Brian Richburg)
He caught his record-breaking fish offshore in roughly 180 feet of water near the South Ledge.
At first, Richburg was unaware that his queen triggerfish was a record breaker.
“I was about to start cleaning the fish, I’d already cleaned all the other fish, and, I was literally about to put a knife to it,” Richburg said.
Richburg’s catch weighed 9 pounds, 6.24 ounces.
This new record surpasses the previous record set on April 7 by Ryan R. Simons of Richmond Hill. Simmons’ catch weighed 7.58 pounds.
“Georgia’s coast offers a great variety of both offshore and inshore fishing, so it’s no surprise that Mr. Richburg was able to land his trophy fish,” Tyler Jones, public information officer for the DNR, told Fox News Digital.
“It’s a little unusual for a record to be broken so quickly, but it in no way diminishes the achievement of the previous record holder, Mr. Ryan Simons,” Jones said.
The queen triggerfish species is known for its recognizable shape and distinct, vibrant colors, according to the DNR.
The DNR officially recognized the state record after verifying the weight and species of Richburg’s catch, the DNR’s press release said.
Richburg will be presented with a certificate signed by Gov. Brian Kemp, DNR Commissioner Walter Rabon and Coastal Resources Division Director Doug Haymans. Richburg is currently featured on the DNR’s website, recognizing him as the official record holder.
“Georgia DNR works hard to ensure our state has great fishing opportunities for everyone, whether that’s through our artificial reef program, our beach water quality monitoring or our public access work including the new Georgia Beyond Barriers handicap accessibility initiative,” Jones said.
“We want to see anglers out there making memories and sometimes even breaking records.”
Richburg is excited to get back out on the water for some upcoming fishing tournaments starting June 1, but right now he’s enjoying being recognized as a record-breaking angler.
Get the latest updates to this story on FoxNews.com.
Georgia
$44 Million Georgia Estate, Held by the Same Family for 130 Years, Could Break Jake Paul’s Record Purchase
Spring Creek Plantation will set a record for the most expensive sporting estate in Georgia history if it sells for more than $39 million, which is what YouTube star and boxer Jake Paul paid for a ranch in the state last year.
The property, whose acreage spans two counties, is in the heart of the wild quail belt and offers opportunities to hunt trophy whitetail deer. Other recreational activities include fishing, boating, paddleboarding, jet skiing and sailing.
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“A property of this size and ambition rarely becomes available and never stays available long,” said Jon Kohler of Jon Kohler & Associates, who listed it Monday. “It’s 8.5 square miles of land, and almost all of it is one contiguous plot. That’s really rare in the South. It’s more like something you’d see out West.”
After being held by the same family for 130 years, the farm was converted to recreational use, Kohler said, adding that the current landowner “spent an untold amount of money” to transform it into a modern year-round recreational and sporting estate.
Stats
The 5,519-acre property includes a newly built, fully furnished lakefront lodge that’s 5,000 square feet and a 182-acre private spring-fed lake. There’s also a lake house, a 2,167-square-foot guest house, a 2,828-square-foot cottage, and a carriage house that has a three-car garage and a guest suite. The buildings were recently remodeled and are being sold fully furnished.
Amenities
The property produces $500,000 in annual income from farmland and mining royalties, which makes it “one of the highest-yielding recreational properties in the South,” Kohler said.
The price includes $1 million in equipment. There’s a full-time management team in place. The automated irrigation system has 12 center-pivot sprinklers that cover 1,060 acres.
Neighborhood Notes
Spring Creek Plantation is in the Albany Plantation Belt, which Kohler said is “one of the most intensively managed sporting grounds in the Southeast.”
Its location is prime: It’s 10 minutes from a 5,000-foot-long private-jet strip that Kohler said has the added bonus of “allowing you to come and go with anonymity.”
Blakely, the nearest town, is home to Kolomoki Mounds State Park.
“It’s a farming town,” Kohler said. “It looks like the set of the old TV show ‘Dukes of Hazzard.’ With its mom-and-pop shops surrounding the courthouse square, it’s like a little American town.”
Mansion Global Boutique: Why Your Home Needs a Little ‘Ugly Beauty’
One of the plantation’s neighbors is Will Harris, owner of White Oak Pastures, the largest organic farm in the state, and author of the 2023 memoir “A Bold Return to Giving a Damn.”
Harris, an early and ardent promoter of humane animal husbandry and environmental sustainability, once leased land at Spring Creek Plantation, Kohler said.
Agent: Jon Kohler, Jon Kohler & Associates
View the original listing.
Georgia baseball players were setting up to take a photo in front of the Foley Field scoreboard with an “OmaDawgs,” graphic on it when fans in the standing room seats and on Kudzu Hill in right field serenaded the team.
“Oh-Ma-Ha! Oh-Ma-Ha!”
It was a moment that a Bulldog team had not experienced for 18 years.
David Perno, the Georgia coach for that 2008 team, and his star player, Gordon Beckham, were in the house on a day the Bulldogs clinched an 11-9 victory over Mississippi State that sent them to Omaha.
The game on Sunday, June 7, took four hours and 14 minutes and wasn’t decided until the 10th inning with two runners on when Justin Byrd struck out Jacob Parker swinging on a 1-2 pitch.
“Kind of just willing it to happen,” catcher Daniel Jackson said. “The second it hit my glove, just knowing it was over, was an incredible feeling.”
Georgia, now 51-12, celebrated. They are used to it after soaking up SEC regular season, SEC tournament and NCAA regional titles this season.
A few Georgia players even jumped up to sit on the center field fence.
Coach Wes Johnson shared a long embrace and then a kiss with his wife, Angie, near the Georgia dugout.
The former Minnesota Twins pitching coach was emotional in the postgame press conference, too, when he said how much making it to the College World Series in his third season means.
“People don’t understand the sacrifices you make to do that,” he said. “The birthdays you miss, anniversaries. A lot.”
Johnson took over a Georgia program that went 0-for-5 in regionals in 2009, 2011, 2018, 2019 and 2022, until his first team featuring Charlie Condon got to a super regional in 2024.
After the win Sunday, Johnson’s voice was cracking when he mentioned Condon sticking with Georgia after he arrived.
“Could have left, didn’t, helped us build this thing,” Johnson, wearing a super regional champions cap, said.
N.C. State stopped them in three games in 2024 to end their season one game short of the CWS.
Georgia then was bounced in the regionals a year ago, again as a national seed.
This one came just over three years after Georgia hired Johnson.
“We think we found the leader to take us to the next level in baseball,” athletic director Josh Brooks said at Johnson’s introductory press conference.
Johnson was on the way then to Omaha where LSU won the College World Series.
“That’s something I want to do here as well,” he said then.
His team now is headed there for just the seventh time in program history.
Johson also went to the CWS with Arkansas in 2018 when the Razorbacks reached the finals.
Georgia will head to Omaha as the highest remaining national seed at No.3 with the momentum that comes with going 8-0 in the postseason, starting with the SEC Tournament.
It will play on the biggest stage in college baseball, but the Bulldogs weren’t ready to turn the page quite yet.
“We’ll soak it in for about 12 to 24 hours and then get right back to the grind,” said Jackson, whose 31st homer of the season, a two-run shot over the fence in left field in the 10th inning, broke a tie game.
An hour after the game ended, Byrd and first baseman Bryce Calloway were among players still in uniform on the field soaking up the super regional title with their families.
Branch, one of the four players that have been with Johnson for all three of his Georgia seasons. went from the postgame press conference to the field and was handed the Super Regional trophy that the Bulldogs earned by winning the series 2-0.
“I truly do go home thinking about Omaha and think about going to that place and taking Georgia back to this place,” Branch said, “and securing the legacy that Georgia needs to have in Omaha.”
Georgia is the third-largest state by population, yet it has no regulated real-money online casinos. There are no licensed Georgia online casinos, and legalization is not on the immediate horizon. So how can you actually play online? Sweepstakes and social casinos are the answer.
These platforms let you play slots and table-style games using Gold Coins for fun and Sweeps Coins that can be redeemed for cash prizes once you meet the site’s requirements. No purchase is required to play or redeem prizes, and every platform on this list is currently available to players in Georgia. Here are the best Georgia online casino-style sites worth signing up for in June 2026.
5 Best Georgia Online Casinos in June 2026
1. Crown Coins Casino — Best Overall
Crown Coins is the most consistent platform on this list of Georgia online casinos. The first-purchase bonus gets you up to 1.5 million Crown Coins and 75 free Sweeps Coins, which is competitive, but the reason it ranks first has less to do with your first day than with what happens after. The daily bonus schedule runs like clockwork, weekly events stay consistent and the Sweeps Coins opportunities do not dry up once the welcome window closes.
A 1x playthrough means your SC balance is not buried behind layers of requirements before you can redeem. For Georgia players who want reliability over flash, Crown Coins is the platform that delivers week after week.
2. Mega Bonanza — Best for Daily Value
Mega Bonanza is not trying to win you over with one big signup splash. The first-purchase deal is $9.99 for up to 50,000 Gold Coins and 25 free SC — respectable, but not the biggest number on this page. What earns it a spot is the daily rhythm. The login streak system builds through the week, and by Day 7 the SC accumulation is meaningfully better than what most competitors offer for the same commitment.
Seasonal promotions drop regularly with packages that outperform the standard coin store pricing. Think of it as the online casino Georgia platform you pair with your primary pick to keep your daily SC intake high.
3. Jackpota — Best for Jackpot Slots
Jackpota focuses on one thing and does it well: jackpot-forward slot play. The no-purchase signup bonus lands 7,500 Gold Coins and 2.5 free Sweeps Coins in your account immediately, and the $19.99 first-purchase package adds 80,000 Gold Coins, 40 Sweeps Coins and 75 free SC spins.
Its 1,500-plus game lobby leans hard into jackpot titles from Pragmatic Play, Hacksaw Gaming and BGaming. Playthrough is 1x on Sweeps Coins, and the cash redemption minimum sits at 75 SC — both on the player-friendly end of the spectrum. No VIP program yet, but the daily 1,500 GC and 0.2 SC login bonus keeps things moving.
4. McLuck Casino — Best Game Library
If you want the most games and the most action among legal Georgia online casinos, McLuck is where you go. The 500 free SC plus 60 extra SC on signup is the biggest no-purchase SC haul on this list, and the game library behind it is massive. Bonus drops land throughout the week tied to specific slots or categories, redemptions process faster than average and the mobile app works well — which is not something you can say about every sweepstakes platform.
McLuck is built for players who want to open the app, find something new and stay engaged without waiting around for the next promotional window.
5. WOW Vegas — Best for Slots
WOW Vegas has the deepest slot library in the Georgia online casino space — over 1,500 titles from NetEnt, Big Time Gaming, BGaming and others. The welcome bonus rolls out over three days: 250,000 WOW Coins and 5 free Sweeps Coins total, no purchase needed. If you decide to buy in, $9.99 gets you 1.5 million WOW Coins and 30 SC on your first purchase.
The daily login bonus adds 0.3 SC and 1,500 WOW Coins every 24 hours. Redemptions start at 50 SC for cash prizes, which is lower than the 100 SC threshold you will see at some competitors. For a Georgia player who primarily wants to spin slots, WOW Vegas is the strongest option available.
Are Real-Money Georgia Online Casinos Legal?
No. Georgia has some of the strictest gambling laws in the country. O.C.G.A. Title 16, Chapter 12 defines gambling broadly and classifies commercial gambling as a felony. The state constitution explicitly prohibits casinos and requires voter approval through a constitutional amendment for any gambling expansion — a two-thirds supermajority in the legislature followed by a statewide referendum.
The only legal gambling in Georgia is the state lottery, charitable bingo and certain coin-operated amusement machines. There are no tribal casinos, no commercial casinos, no legal sportsbooks and no licensed online gambling of any kind.
Georgia lawmakers have tried repeatedly to change that. House Resolution 450, which proposed a constitutional amendment to authorize sports betting, came to the House floor on Crossover Day in March 2026 but failed to secure the two-thirds vote needed to advance. House Bill 910, which attempted to classify sports betting as a lottery product under the Georgia Lottery Corporation, also carried over from 2025 but did not pass.
As of June 2026, no gambling expansion bill has advanced far enough to put legal Georgia online casinos or sportsbooks on the near-term horizon, and any renewed push would likely come in a future legislative session.
Georgia law provides that promotional and giveaway contests that meet the state’s lawful promotion standards are not classified as illegal gambling. Because sweepstakes casinos are structured so that no purchase is necessary to play or win, they avoid the “consideration” element that would trigger Georgia’s gambling prohibitions. Every platform on this list uses that model and is currently available to Georgia residents.
How to Sign Up for Georgia Online Casinos
Tap PLAY NOW on any Georgia online casino platform above to get started. Pick a screen name, set a password, enter your email and fill in your home address, phone number and date of birth. The whole process takes a couple of minutes, and your welcome bonus lands in your account as soon as registration is complete.
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