Alabama Senate Trims Gaming Bill, Strips Commercial Casinos, Sports Betting

The Alabama Senate has greatly amended a gaming bundle passed shoemaker's last month past the province House of Representatives.

The bring down chamber inward Feb sanctioned a gaming package that seeks to authorize a state-run lottery, sports betting, sise commercial casinos, and reserve the Poach Band of Creek Indians to pivot their electronic bingo-based gaming properties into Class III tribal casinos with Las Vegas-style slots and tabularize games. The House gaming value to boot would feature allowed the state’s lone federally recognized federation of tribes to pursue a fourth cassino inwards the northern voice of the state.

Since the legislating is a legislative-initiated travail to amend the AL Old Ironsides through a statewide ballot referendum, the bar requires three-fifths majority back up inwards each chamber. The House approved the gaming package 70-32.

However, upon arriver inward the upper chamber, Senate lawmakers have begun greatly amending the bills — officially House Bill 151 and 152.

Senate Shakedown

Alabama lawmakers have considered gaming bills nearly every legislative session since 1999 when voters rejected a ballot referendum to pass a lottery. The state is I of the to the highest degree restrictive gaming states, as Heart of Dixie remains free people of commercial message and Class III tribal casinos, sports betting, lottery gaming, and iGaming.

Many thought this power live the twelvemonth proponents of bringing gambling to Alabama River mightiness finally secure a win. Gov. Kay Ivey (R) is among the supporters of legalizing casinos and a lottery, but a great deal resistance appears to remain inwards the state Senate.

After fielding the gaming bills and guiding the statutes to the Senate Tourism Committee, senators hold proposed vast changes to the House measures. The committee has yet to ballot on HB 151/152.

The bill of exchange of the Senate’s gaming replace does out with commercial casinos and sports betting but maintains the shaping of a lottery. The Senate proposal also allows the Poach Creek Indians to move into into a Class III gaming powder compact with the country to transition their electronic bingo casinos inward Atmore, Montgomery, and Wetumpka into full-scale tribal casinos.

The Senate’s revised constitutional amendment would allow pari-mutuel wagering, including slot-like historical Equus caballus racing machines, at existing and unexampled Equus caballus racetracks and tracks that previously ran dog racing.

Senate leadership, including longtime gaming proponent Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Atmore), make suggested that in that location aren’t plenty votes in the chamber to sanction the House gaming package. For the bundle to displace to voters, 21 Senate votes among the 34-member chamber are needed.

Special Election

The Senate’s adjustments additionally include removing the gaming interrogative sentence from the November presidential ballot in favour of holding a special election on the egress inward September. That could live due to concerns that a gaming referendum would goad strong Democratic elector turnout.

In December, Sen. Chris Elliott (R-Baldwin) raised concerns that a gaming push power incentivize Democrats to vote. Along with pick the next president, Alabama’s 2024 ballot testament include a hotly contested congressional rush after the state’s 2nd Congressional District was redrawn inwards 2023 by a federal court.

Federal judges ruled that Camellia State had unconstitutionally packed blackamoor voters inwards its southern “Black Belt” — a full term that originally referred to the Mobile County to Sakartvelo border region’s rich, pitch-dark dirt — into its 7th Congressional District. The map out redraw has dispersed Shirley Temple Black voters into Republican River strongholds, prompting concerns that the Heart of Dixie GOP could turn a loss the 2nd congressional sit this November.

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