A new year means a new fight in Alabama to end the state’s longstanding ban on most forms of gambling.
2025 Legislative Session Begins
The Alabama Legislature begins its 2025 session on Tuesday, Feb. 4, and runs through May 15. Alabama does not carry over bills, meaning any failed attempts from the 2024 session to expand gaming in the Cotton State will need to be reintroduced.
Previous Gaming Package and Proposed Gaming Expansion
Last session, a gaming package reached by a special conference committee was a vote shy of the three-fifths majority needed in the Senate. The compromise had earlier passed the House of Representatives. The bill would have authorized a state-run lottery, electronic gaming machines at parimutuel facilities, and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians to transition from Class II to Class III gaming to include Las Vegas-style slot machines and live dealer table games. The tribe’s current Wind Creek Casinos only offer electronic bingo-based games.
Lobbying, Public Support, and Alabama Sports Betting
With just a week out from the politicking beginning in Montgomery, lobbyists and trade groups are running commercial and social media messages in hopes of convincing the public to tell their state representatives and senators that they want legal gaming. The Sports Betting Alliance (SBA) is supported by sports betting leaders FanDuel and DraftKings. BetMGM and Fanatics Sportsbook are the organization’s two other members. The advocacy lobbies state lawmakers on its belief that a transparent, legal sports betting market protects consumers, rids out the underground and offshore markets, and generates new tax revenue. In Alabama, the SBA projects that online sports betting would generate between $65 million and $90 million in new annual tax revenue for the state. The SBA is bankrolling social media ads in Alabama that hype the possible benefits of a legal sports betting environment. While the SBA is also supportive of iGaming, the alliance in 2025 is focusing on sports betting in Alabama.
Support for State Lottery and “Give Alabama A Voice” Campaign
The Petroleum & Convenience Marketers of Alabama, an advocacy that promotes favorable business conditions for its members, is encouraging Alabama lawmakers to finally pass a lottery bill. It’s a form of gaming expansion that Governor Kay Ivey (R) has sought for years. The trade group that serves more than 350 petroleum companies and convenience store operators in Alabama is behind a campaign called “Give Alabama A Voice.” The committee seeks to convince lawmakers to pass legislation to allow a statewide referendum in November to amend the Alabama Constitution to permit a lottery. “We’ve never been closer,” the campaign claims. “We have the momentum to vote on an Alabama lottery, giving you the chance to participate in billions of dollars in lottery winnings. Plus, Alabama gets to keep its share of the lottery revenue we are currently giving away to other surrounding states.” Alabama is one of only five states that does not have a lottery.
Conservative Gaming Opposition
Alabama is deep in the so-called Bible Belt, where Republicans have held a political trifecta in occupying the governor’s office and both chambers of the Legislature since 2011. The Alabama Policy Institute (API), an influential conservative think tank that has perpetually opposed efforts to bring gambling to Alabama, recently launched a website dedicated to opposing 2025 casino, lottery, and sports betting bills. “Legalizing casino-style gambling in the state and establishing a statewide lottery is bad public policy, both fiscally and socially, and it is the wrong solution to address the state’s unsustainable fiscal trajectory,” the API’s website reads. “Regardless of who plays the lottery or gambles, the government receives a portion of every dollar spent on these activities. This creates a perverse incentive for the state. The state becomes addicted to these regressive funding streams, with politicians desiring for more and more individuals and families to recklessly spend their money gambling,” the website opines. The advocacy also suggests that the expansion of gambling requires a growth of government infrastructure, something many conservatives oppose.
