Alabama Gambling Expansion Bills Ready to Fizzle?

Alabama Senate President Pro-Tem Greg Reed talks to reporters. He says the conference committee system works, and he looks forward to seeing what elements from both gambling expansion bills the House and Senate can agree on. (Image: Kim Chandler/Associated Press/Alamy)

The Alabama House and Senate have each passed bills that would widely expand gambling in the state. But the two visions are very different, and lawmakers acknowledge that they have significant distance to make up when the two sides meet in a conference committee to try to pass legislation.

The House passed its version of the gambling package in mid-February. The Senate followed up with its own legislation for legalized gambling in Alabama in early March.

House Goes Big, Senate Goes Tribal 

Those two legislative packages differ substantially, and last week, the House rejected the Senate’s version of the bills. 

The House bills would create a state lottery, allow for brick-and-mortar casinos, and legalize sports betting. The Senate’s version doesn’t include legal sports betting and gives the Poarch Band of Creek Indians a monopoly on casino operations. The Senate bill also leaves it up to the legislature to determine where lottery funds should go, while the House version earmarks that money for educational purposes.

Among those differences, Rep. Andy Whitt (R-Harvest) pointed to one issue that he’s heard about from constituents. 

“The people of Alabama want to vote on an educational lottery,” Whitt told CBS 42. “It’s the most talked about thing that I’m approached with by constituents day in and say out…I think an educational lottery, a lot of people have high expectations that we’re going to come out with something to allow people to vote on it.”

Whitt says that many Alabama citizens cross the border into Tennessee to play the lottery, sending dollars to that state’s educational system. Whitt has also argued that the Senate version of the bill leaves too much money on the table.

Gambling Bill Faces ‘Uphill Battles’

While the Senate hasn’t yet named three members to join the conference committee, leadership has expressed confidence that there will at least be conference discussions in the current legislative session.

“The bill is going to come out of the basket,” Senate President Pro-Tem Greg Reed (R-Jasper) told reporters. “There is going to be a conference committee and that committee can do its work and negotiate, which is the process, and then come back to both bodies and determine where we go next.”

Senator Greg Albritton (R-Atmore) expressed similar sentiments, but also gave a blunt assessment of the bill’s chances. 

“My concern is that we have such differences between what the House passed and what the Senate passed and then where that middle ground is,” Albritton told reporters on Thursday. “We’re going to have to get a 60 percent vote in both house s again. All of those are uphill battles. It’s going to be difficult.”

While Whitt and other House members expressed disappointment over the narrow focus of the Senate bill, Reed says the Senate is happy with what they passed.

“I’m very comfortable with the Senate bill,” Reed said. “I think we did some things that are very different, and I think that’s what our members were looking for.”

Whitt thinks that giving the House members a chance to talk to their Senate counterparts could help bridge the gap.

“The House worked on this bill 14 months, I think the Senate worked on it three weeks,” Whitt said. “The Senate has had very little conversation with members of the House regarding this issue, so hopefully we can find some common ground.”