Alabama Senate Tourism Committee is underway, with two lottery bills on the agenda. This will be a thread for the discussion. Gotta be in it to win it. #alpolitics
The reason Alabama is one of a handful of states without a lottery? The politics of (and adjacent to) a lottery have the complexity of string theory. montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/202…
First, a public hearing on an entertainment bill. #alpolitics
Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston, the chair of the Tourism Committee, says "the people of Alabama want to vote on something dealing with gambling." Says he believes legislators will have to put something on the ballot. #alpolitics
Marsh says there's "a lot of opposition" to a simple lottery bill and gotten requests to delay it. Hmmmm. #alpolitics
Marsh says he wants to approve a proposal from Sen. Jim McClendon, R-Springville, to give a vehicle for a gambling proposal. He wants to keep Gudger's bill in committee. #alpoltics
Sen. Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, who proposed his own lottery bill, moves to carry it over. #alpolitics
Now we're on Jim McClendon's bill. A substitute adopted for the bill. #alpolitics
McClendon says his bill would give Alabamians the chance to decide whether they would like a lottery. No gambling or anything else involved. But Marsh is calling this a potential vehicle for other gambling proposals. #alpolitics
Marsh's comprehensive bill removed a major stumbling block to previous lottery proposals by giving the two heavyweight gambling facilities access to Class III games. Without that, the mistrust between the dog tracks and the Poarch Band flares up again. #alpolitics
But by giving the Poarch Band and the dog tracks gambling, you lock out smaller operators. That could cost you votes. But so can letting more of those operators in. If you can solve that, you deserve the Nobel Prize in Physics. #alpolitics
Pictured: Trying to pass gambling legislation in Alabama (apologies to @WarOnDumb)
Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, says he wants to sending a gambling proposal to a vote, but he also wants the proposal to be "solid and tight." #alpolitics
Gambling is one of the issues in the Legislature where the minority Democrats have some leverage. One generally needs their votes to pass gaming legislation. #alpolitics
The lottery bill gets voted out of committee. But we've been told that it's going to be a potential vehicle for possibly/maybe other gambling proposals, so 🤷♂️ #alpolitics
And I think that's the end of the Senate Tourism Committee meeting. To sum up: they voted out a lottery bill, but it could become more extensive legislation, but if it fails they have another simple lottery bill waiting in committee. #alpolitics
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