A betting package has advanced from the House to the Senate but that’s where it has stalled. However, the comprehensive gambling legislation is not dead but merely delayed thanks to the efforts of Senator Greg Albritton.
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
House Bill 151 and 152 cruised through the House by getting the required 60% majority with the former being a constitutional amendment that would undo the gambling prohibition as stipulated in the 1901 state constitution. The latter bill, HB 152, would enact the gambling package and create the Alabama Gaming Commission and Alabama Lottery Corporation. The Cotton State is one of the few in the nation without a lottery.
However, the reception those bills received in the Senate was chilly, to say the least. The bill was considered by the Alabama Senate Tourism Committee but Senator Greg Albritton, a vocal proponent of bringing gambling to his constituents, decided there was not enough support in the Senate to pass the legislation and the committee has therefore taken no action. The bills have been carried for consideration at a later date or will receive substitute bills for review.
“As long as Alabama leaves on the ground what we have now, we are running in unregulated, untamed land and doing more and more harm as we go,” Albritton said before asking for the bills to be carried over for the substitutes. “I [carry over] with seriousness that if we’re going to get this done, we need to have cooperation and compromise on both sides. We cannot have separate people and individuals running through and running over. I’ve given up today on running this through. I want the other side to come to the table and work together.”
What’s Next?
The game plan now is to compromise and find a way to get substitute bills for those being carried in committee that will be palatable for those who are opposed to the current gambling package.
Should a compromise be reached and legislation is successfully enacted, then it would be put to the Alabama registered voters to decide in November. No constitutional amendment can be legislated without the approval of the citizens which is the primary focus of HB 151.
“It’s been a quarter-century since we’ve allowed our citizens the right to vote on this issue,” Rep. Andy Whitt, one of the package’s co-sponsors, said on the floor. “It’s time.”
The Opposition
The impetus in Alabama, as in all other states, to pass gambling legislation is to unlock an untapped and significant revenue stream. The rebuttal to those who are opposed is to merely point out that gambling is already occurring and neighboring states are getting the tax dollars that should be collected by the home state.
In Alabama’s case, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Florida are all border states that have passed gambling legislation and are reaping the benefits. Many Alabamans are crossing state lines to make a bet and fattening the tax coffers of those neighboring states.
But sports betting is not the only form of gambling on the table. Representative Chris Blackshear noted the revenue stream from a comprehensive gambling package is multi-pronged and highly lucrative. The lawmaker estimated $41.5 million per year in state revenues on sports betting at the suggested 17% tax on adjusted gross revenues while a state lottery would deliver $300 million.
Lastly, commercial casinos are projected to generate over $492 million via a 24% tax on those revenues. Those figures jibe with the findings by the Study Group on Gambling Policy commissioned by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey that revealed the state could generate a combined $800 million from those gaming sources.
