Gambling Expansion Bill Likely To Fail In AlabamaLegislation Efforts Stalled In State Senate |
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Efforts at expanding gambling in Alabama may have to wait until next year after facing roadblocks in the state senate. A gambling bill passed in a 70-32 vote in February, but Sen. Greg Albritton® said the bill now faces some procedural obstacles that may leave it going down without a vote.
The house bill would legalize up to seven casinos while adding sports betting and a lottery, but now the senate version appears in jeopardy.
“We’re stuck,” Albritton told the Alabama Reflector. “We either have to vote the [constitutional amendment] up or down or just leave it in the basket.”
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Albritton originally sponsored the bill, but ended up being a no vote on a possible compromise bill. The compromise didn’t include sports betting and he also believed the plan restricted the Poarch Band of Creek Indians’ (PCI) involvement in expanded gaming in the state.
The tribe is located in his district and runs casinos in Atmore, Montgomery, and Wetumpka. He argued that the current language doesn’t allow PCI to negotiate compacts with the state that might allow the tribe to expand its own gaming operations. Albritton also favored including some kind of language legalizing sports betting and online gaming in the state.
“We have not done anything to control, restrict, oversee or tax that,” he said of iGaming and sports betting. “Those are two growing portions of the industry that we just ignore with this bill.”
Several senators said the original bill was too expansive and that backers weren’t going to be able to get enough support. There were still some holding out hope, however, that a bill could be put to a vote before the end of the current legislative session on May 14.
An effort in Georgia to legalize sports betting in Georgia also recently failed after legislators couldn’t agree on how to use tax money collected.
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