Opinion | Will We Ever Have a Lottery in Alabama?

We were so close. After 25 years of toying with the idea of having a lottery in Alabama, or at least letting the citizens decide on the issue, Alabama leaders failed once again to make it happen...and this time by a single vote. This latest failure begs the question: will we ever have a lottery in Alabama?

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HB 151 would have brought a special vote to the state in August 2024 to let the people of Alabama make the final decision to bring the lottery to Alabama. According to Al.com, the bill needed 21 votes for passage, or three-fifths support from the 35-member Senate. It only got 20 votes - one vote shy of passing. Another chance gone in a 25-year struggle to get the lottery in Alabama.

Alabama is one of only five states in the country that doesn't have a state lottery. Meanwhile, millions of dollars are spent by Alabama residents in neighboring states that do have a lottery: Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida, and Georgia.

Photo byEmiliano VittoriosionUnsplash

Here's a bit of irony. If the Alabama legislature had passed HB151 and the people of Alabama had voted to pass the bill, Alabama would have been the 46th state to have a lottery. Instead, Alabama remains ranked 45th overall in education. That's right—we are dangling near the lowest rung on the educational ladder.

If our elected leaders could get their act together and allocate the money correctly, lottery dollars could transform education in Alabama. At the least, an Alabama lottery could keep millions of dollars here in Sweet Home Alabama that are currently going to out-of-state lotteries. At the rate we're going, however, it's hard to say if we will ever have a lottery in Alabama.

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