Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, speaks with Sen. Gerald Allen, R-Cottondale, on the floor of the Alabama Senate on April 9, 2024 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. The prospects for any sort of gambling bill in the 2025 legislative session are unclear after a bruising battle over a comprehensive package last year. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
Prospects for bills addressing gambling in Alabama in the 2025 legislative session remain unclear even after legislators have had ongoing discussions among themselves for the past several months in the offseason.
Lawmakers had protracted discussions about the provisions they would like to include as part of the gambling package, so much so that they have the different elements laid out, but finalizing a complete package, one that would get the required votes, remains an open question.
“The question is, which cut and paste would get a vote and which one loses a vote,” said Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, chair of the Senate’s General Fund budget committee who had been leading the efforts to introduce a gambling bill in the Senate. “We have got to find the magic combination that gains us four and loses two.”
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The discussions come after a high-profile bill to create a lottery and establish casino gaming in Alabama failed to pass in 2024 amid sharp disagreements between the Alabama House, where the bill originated, and the Alabama Senate over sports betting and gambling expansion.
The Alabama Constitution bans lotteries and gambling. Any measure to allow one or the other that wins legislative approval would then need to be approved by voters as a constitutional amendment.
Those who support legislation aimed at regulating, and taxing, gambling said it would be difficult to find a compromise that will address all the concerns of different lawmakers, from the amount of revenue to the types of gambling that should be permitted. Albritton, who handled last year’s gambling package in the Senate, voted against it in a key vote.
“The problem hasn’t gone away,” Albritton said. “In fact, it is getting worse, particularly the sports gaming. It continues to grow in Alabama, and it is growing completely unregulated. We are just sitting around and watching it grow. Whether I can get the votes to get it out of the Senate to do something different, I don’t know that yet.”
As of Thursday afternoon, one bill related to gambling had been filed. HB 41, sponsored by by Rep. Matthew Hammett, R-Hozier, would enhance criminal penalties for some elements considered gaming. Promoting or allowing gambling would be a Class C felony for the first offense followed by a Class B felony for subsequent offenses.
Looking to the Senate
What has been clear is the consensus among lawmakers from both chambers is that any legislation pertaining to gambling must start in the Senate.
“We had it on our platform last time, and we pushed it out of the House, it remains in the Senate, and that is where it died,” said Alabama House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville, at a news conference Tuesday. “So, until the Senate decides that they want to prioritize it, we are not even going to think about it.”
Rep. Chris Blackshear, R-Smiths Station, one of the two co-sponsors of last year’s comprehensive gambling package, agreed.
“Any gaming legislation in the 2025 session must originate in the Senate,” he said. “If the Senate does choose to take up a gaming package, and they pass something and send it to the House, then and only then, will we in the House engage and determine how we move forward.”
Blacksher and Rep. Andy Whitt, R-Harvest, proposed a package after what Blacksher said was 14 months of research that would have created a state lottery, allowed limited casino gambling, as well as a state commission to tax and regulate the industry.
The package passed the House easily but stalled in the Senate amid disagreements over the scope of the bill and how money generated from it would be dispersed. After the Senate stripped the legislation down to a lottery and a gaming compact with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, a federally-recognized tribe with casinos in Atmore, Montgomery and Wetumpka, the House sent the bill to the conference committee.
A compromise measure that emerged from the committee passed the House late in the session but failed in the Senate. Several members of the Alabama House spent the last day of the 2024 session complaining about the bill’s defeat in the Senate.
“The House proved, on two separate occasions, to be able to pass a comprehensive gaming plan out of our body, to allow the citizens to vote,” Blacksher said. “We also saw, on one occasion, we were not able to see that same thing in the Senate, so there is no need for us to tie up time, our members’ time and other important bills, to address something we have already done until the Senate is able to do the same.”
Blackshear said that he and Whitt proposed comprehensive gambling legislation last year after taking a tour throughout the state to better understand the impact of gambling.
“We saw a significant amount of illegal activity for ourselves,” Blackshear said. “We were in the back of clothing stores that had machines, florists who had machines, nutrition stores that had machines, gas stations that had machines. We saw them with our own eyes.”
Albritton said he was not surprised by the House members’ attitude.
“I embarrassed them two years ago and threw them under the bus several times,” Albritton said. “They are reciprocating this year.”
Outside interest groups have spoken to lawmakers in the hopes of beating back efforts once again.
Among them is the Alabama Farmers Federation, one of the largest insurance companies operating in Alabama and a major player in state Republican politics.
“The Alabama Farmers Federation has a longstanding written policy opposing gambling in any form,” said Jeff Helms, director of the department of public relations and communications for the Alabama Farmers Federation. “Our policy comes from our members.”
Helms added that “They object to gambling on moral grounds but they also object to government-sanctioned gambling as a smart way to fund government functions.”
The 2025 session of the Alabama Legislature starts on Tuesday.
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