Lawmakers meet on compromise of Alabama lottery, gambling bill

A conference committee of three state senators and three representatives is holding its first public meeting Tuesday to try to reach a compromise on the large differences in plans for a lottery and other state-regulated gambling passed by the Alabama House and the Senate.

The committee meeting starts at 3 p.m. in room 617 of the Alabama State House.

If the committee approves a compromise, it would go to the full House and full Senate, where it would take three-fifths of senators and three-fifths of representatives to pass and send to the ballot for voters, who have the final say on any bills for a lottery or other expansion of legal gambling.

Lottery bills are proposed every year but none have reached the ballot since 1999.

The House passed this year’s gambling package first, on Feb. 15. It included a lottery, 10 casinos, including four that would be operated by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, and legal sports betting.

Three weeks later, the Senate approved a scaled-back plan that included a lottery but no sports betting, three casinos operated by the Poarch Creeks. Instead of the other full-scale casinos, the Senate plan would allow pari-mutuel gambling on simulcast races and computerized historical horse racing machines at the state’s four former greyhound tracks and three other locations.

This story will be updated.