Alabama Senate committee makes major changes to gambling package

Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, the chair of the Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund Committee, listens to a budget presentation from the Alabama Community College System on March 7, 2023. The presentation came on the first day of the Alabama Legislature's 2023 regular session. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)

An Alabama Senate committee Tuesday made major changes to a House-approved gambling package that scales back much of the original package.

The changes to the two bills — HB 151, a constitutional amendment, and HB 152, laying out operations, revenue disbursement and enforcement — passed the Senate Tourism Committee on voice votes.

The package, sponsored by Rep. Chris Blackshear, R-Smiths Station, passed the Alabama House of Representatives on Feb. 15. As filed, it would have created a state lottery, casino gambling at up to seven locations and sports wagering. It would also have created enforcement mechanisms and directed Gov. Kay Ivey to pursue a compact with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, a federally-recognized tribe that operates casinos in Atmore, Montgomery and Wetumpka.

Several senators, however, said they would not back the proposal . Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, who carried the bills in the House, signaled Tuesday that substitutes approved by the Senate contained major revisions.

“We have before us two bills that reflect a major manufacturing sausage that has not been easy,” he said.

The substitutes were not immediately available online Tuesday evening. Supporters of the House-passed gambling bill said it could bring up to $1.2 billion to state when fully implemented. Albritton said Tuesday he had not seen a fiscal note, but the most recent estimates he heard on the Senate package were $350 million.

Albritton told reporters it contained casinos under local constitutional amendments with limitations; created an enforcement division, the means to get started on a lottery and directs the governor to negotiate a compact with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. The senator told members of the committee the new bill says that the governor shall negotiate a compact but may enter into or execute.

“It gives Alabama the means to capture at least a good portion of what we have going on in Alabama,” he said in committee.

The House bill would have earmarked money from a state lottery for education, and money from casinos and sports wagering for the General Fund. Under the proposal, the Legislature would have broad discretion to distribute the funds, though the bill contained suggestions, including postsecondary scholarships and a rural health programs that included language similar to Medicaid expansion.

Albritton said the Senate bill would put a third of revenues to education; a third to roads and bridges and a third to the General Fund.

Where the House bill authorized casinos at seven locations, most which had been authorized by local constitutional amendments, like VictoryLand in Macon County and Greene County Entertainment in Greene County, Albritton said the Senate bill would only allow those facilities to offer pari-mutuel wagering with simulcast and video historical racing.

The bill does not allow any other form of casino-style gaming at a state-run location, though a compact with the federally-recognized Poarch Band, who follow federal laws on gambling, could potentially include that. It would also exclude sports wagering.

A spokesperson for the Poarch Band of Creek Indians wrote in an email Tuesday evening that they had just seen the legislation and were “still processing” it.

Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, whose district includes Greene County, asked about the exclusion of sports betting.

“Nobody’s giving me an explanation of why we’re not trying to capture those dollars,” he said.

Albritton told reporters after the vote that they did not have the votes in the Senate for sports wagering, and that members of the GOP caucus expressed concerns about young people getting involved in sports betting.

Albritton also said that the substitute removed the language resembling Medicaid expansion, a long-sought goal of hospitals and health care providers in the state.

“We had several things, a whole gamut of things, that were put in there and that was one of the last things that were negotiated on the dispersal side, and that language, I think, was changed up and or removed,” Albritton said.

House Democrats, who provided the votes to pass the gambling package in that chamber last month, said the health care language was critical for their support .

House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville, said Tuesday that he didn’t think that the bill could pass without Democratic support.

“ If they remove that provision and it’s not back in, I’m not going to vote for it,” he said.

Singleton said Tuesday evening he wanted to see a level playing field for gambling operations, and suggested there might be ways to change the bill if it goes to a conference committee.

“I just want some parity for everybody, make sure there’s equity,” he said. “And I hope that we can look at if this goes to conference, maybe we can work something out there.”

Blackshear and Rep. Andy Whitt, R-Harvest, the House sponsors, both said Tuesday that they had little knowledge about what was going on in the Senate.

“I have no comment on the gambling until we get done, because I’m serious, it’s all in the Senate,” Blackshear said. “I have no comment on what they are doing.”

Alander Rocha contributed to this report.

The post Alabama Senate committee makes major changes to gambling package appeared first on Alabama Reflector .