How 1 vote sunk the latest attempt at gambling and lottery in the Alabama Senate

The phrase “every vote counts” is often raised during election season to drum up voter turnout.

On Tuesday, it applied in the Alabama Senate on an issue that has frustrated Alabamians and lawmakers for 25 years: The legalization of gambling and lottery.

With a 20-15 vote, HB151 failed passage by a single vote. At issue: An Aug. 20 special election in which the voters in Alabama could decide if they wanted lottery and limited electronic casino gambling enshrined into the Alabama State Constitution.

“All they need is one vote,” said Steve Flowers, a former Republican member of the Alabama State House and a longtime political commentator and author. “It’s a very, very strong issue with voters.”

Since HB151 was a constitutional amendment, it required 21 votes for passage, or three-fifths support from the 35-member Senate.

The overall gambling package, outlined in the 127-page HB152, includes a lottery to fund education and authorizes up to seven casinos allowing for slot machines or “electronic gaming. The casinos would be located at existing dog tracks and bingo halls throughout the state.

The seven casinos would be prohibited from having table games that use cards, dice, or a dealer. The other three casinos would be full-scale casinos on tribal lands operated by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Atmore, Wetumpka, and Montgomery under a compact negotiated with the governor. Sports betting was also not included within the legislation.

The legislation, if approved, would give voters the first crack at deciding whether a paper lottery should be created in Alabama, with almost all of its proceeds going toward education. Alabama is one of only five states without a lottery.

A poll taken in November by KAConsulting, LLC — headed up by Kellyanne Conway, the campaign manager for President Donald Trump in 2016 — shows a whopping 80% support for lottery and 64% backing for casinos. The poll consisted of 60% of people identifying as Republican.

“I’ve been watching the Legislature for (more than a) half century, and the most serious of act of financial malpractice and the most serious act of the failure of this state is to not have a lottery,” said Jess Brown, a retired political science professor at Athens State University. “It has probably easily cost us $1.5 billion. Easily. Maybe more. They just fritter away while other states are developing public services, and public infrastructure using that revenue source. We just sit on the sidelines and say, ‘No.’”

Lawmakers say the bill could resurface with only four days remaining in session. But to get it approved will require flipping a “No” to a “Yes,” and history suggests that it will not be easy. At least two lawmakers who voted to support a gambling bill in early March — Sens. Chris Elliott and Lance Bell — say they will not support another attempt at passing the same version that defeated on Tuesday.

Who voted ‘No’

Some key facts from the 15 “No” votes on Tuesday include:

• Three lawmakers — Bell, R-Pell City; Elliott, R-Josephine; and Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore — voted “No” late Tuesday, less than two months after voting in favor of a previous gaming package. Elliott and Bell, in interviews with AL.com on Wednesday, said they were both concerned with an expansion of electronic casino gambling in the current version. Albritton, whose Senate district includes Wind Creek Casino in Atmore — owned and operated by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians (PCI), who are based in Atmore — said the legislation restricted PCI, and put them in an “unsustainable position economically.”
• Of the 15 “No” votes, seven Republicans were consistent with prior voting histories on gambling in that they also voted against a gaming package while serving in the Senate in 2021. That list includes Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur; Sen. Gerald Allen, R-Tuscaloosa; Sen. Tom Butler, R-Madison; Sen. Shay Shelnutt, R-Trussville; Sen. Dan Roberts, R-Mountain Brook; Sen. Larry Stutts, R-Tuscumbia; and Sen. Sam Givhan, R-Huntsville. None of those seven lawmakers voted to support the Senate gambling package in March.
• Rookie senators who voted “No” included Bell; Sen. Josh Carnley, R-Enterprise; Sen. Wes Kitchens, R-Arab; Sen. Keith Kelley, R-Anniston. Sen. April Weaver, R-Brierfield, who won a special election to the Senate in July 2021, did not vote on the 2021 gambling package. Sen. Jack Williams, R-Wilmer, voted in support of the 2021 version, but has voted against the gambling bill this year.
• Gambling bills in the Senate appear to be gaining more opposition than support over the last three votes. The 2021 gambling package was approved out of the Senate by a 23-9 vote, before it died in the Alabama House on the final day of session. The March 7 vote was 22-11 in the Senate.
• Included among Tuesday’s “No” votes were seven lawmakers whose Senate district borders a state that has a lottery: Elliott, Carnley, and Albritton have districts abutting Florida; Williams, Stutts, and Allen border Mississippi; and Givhan borders Tennessee. Two other senators have districts within a short driving distance to a neighboring lottery state: Kelley’s district is near Georgia, while Butler’s district is in close proximity to Tennessee.

The border issue generated a lot of discussion in the Alabama House, shortly before the chamber voted 72-29 in favor of the legislation. Lawmakers argued in support of the package because of the creation of a lottery, and the lure that Powerball games and scratch off tickets have on Alabamians who travel a short distance to buy tickets.

“We are funding their programs in Florida, Tennessee, and Mississippi,” said Rep. Chip Brown, R-Hollingers Island in Mobile County, about Alabamians traveling into neighboring states to purchase lottery tickets. “We’re paying for their kids to go to school, upgrading their facilities at their high schools.””

Bell, Elliott and Albritton

The focus on the “No” votes from Tuesday are on Bell, Elliott and Albritton — the three state senators who were “Yes” votes in March but flipped to a “No” on Tuesday.

Albritton was a member of the six-person conference committee that was negotiating the latest gambling package, said he informed his fellow committee members about the concerns he had with the newest legislation. Those concerns included: PCI’s concerns about the legislation, an expansion of electronic gaming statewide, a lack of sports betting, and no online gaming, and a lack of regulation.

House Bills 151 and 152, if approved, would have required Gov. Kay Ivey to enter into compact negotiations with PCI. The compact would be limited to in-person activities on lands held in trust prior to February 6, 2024. The version of the legislation the House passed in March would have allowed the Poarch Creeks to operate a fourth casino in northeast Alabama as part of a compact with the governor.

Albritton said that the language within the legislation restricts PCI, a federally recognized tribe that owns and operates three casinos on sovereign land in Atmore, Wetumpka and Montgomery.

The tribe has declined to comment about the vote.

“We even went through and restricted where the governor could not negotiate certain things with PCI,” Albritton said. “It put PCI in an unsustainable position economically. Principally, we would have lost the ability of having anything of value to be able to enter into a compact with PCI. Because Class III gaming is already there. You can’t have another site (under the legislation). And they could only do certain things within the locations where they were. So, those are the issues that pushed me over the top.”

Elliott, who represents much of Baldwin County, said the compromise legislation “vastly expanded electronic casinos throughout our state and contained a significant permissive language that further grew government.”

“While I have repeatedly voted for a referendum on a paper lottery, I could not support the conference committee’s expansive legislative,” Elliott said.

Bell said he also could not support the casino expansion spelled out within the legislation.

Neither Bell nor Elliott said their votes were influence by the PCI.

“I would love for the people to vote on the lottery,” Bell said. “I think the people deserve the right to vote on the lottery. I just hate that other things are tied to it.”

By Wednesday afternoon, there appeared to be some political fallout from their votes. A text message was sent out throughout Elliott’s Senate district, paid for by Give Alabama Voice — a pro-gambling political action committee — blaming the senator’s vote “to kill” an educational lottery and to “give the Poarch Creek Indians a continued monopoly of gaming in Alabama.”

Concerns

The package included two pieces of legislation — the constitutional amendment (HB151), and the 127-page enabling legislation, HB152.

Some of the concerns about HB152 included issues over where casino proceeds would go once they were funneled into the General Fund. The legislation spells out some examples:

• Mental health
• Rural health care
• Road repairs
• State parks and historic sites
• Bonuses to state workers, retirees, and teachers
• Establishment of drug courts, veteran courts, and other court-approved deferred prosecution programs.

“On the General fund side, there seems to be a good bit of flexibility even though things are referenced and suggested on type of expenditures,” Brown said, suggesting that casino proceeds could go toward an expansion of Medicaid, which has been a politically unpopular move for Republicans since Medicaid expansion was provided within the Affordable Care Act during the Obama Administration.

Within HB152, there is language that allows casino money to go toward the “purchase of qualified health benefit plans for adults with income below 138 percent of the federal poverty level.”

“There is language in there that, to me, suggest they wanted Medicaid expansion,” Brown said.

Opponents

Other Republican-leaning interest groups opposing the gambling package include the Alabama Farmers Federation (ALFA), and the Alabama Citizens Action Program (ALCAP). The Alabama Policy Institute (API) has also long opposed gambling expansion.

The Alabama Republican Party is generally staying out of the fray. Chairman John Wahl “has no comment on HB151,” acknowledging “there are Republicans on both sides of this issue, and we are waiting to see what happens with the legislation.”

Greg Davis, president and CEO of ALCAP, said his concern is that the gambling legislation — even though it prohibited card games — would still allow for blackjack and other games to be played on a screen.

“I don’t think the government should be in the business of preying on their own people to lose their money to fund state programs,” Davis said, explaining his opposition to state-sponsored gaming. “Then picking who gets to be in business with the state, who doesn’t get to be in business with the state. If we’re going to do it, let’s open it up and let everybody do it. But we don’t do that. We pick winners and losers. And we favor the people who have already been there.”

Will it be reconsidered?

The Legislature still has a few more days remaining in its spring session. With only one vote to spare, it could return for another vote. Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed, R-Jasper, classified Tuesday’s vote as “a test vote, I guess you could say, to understand exactly where the membership was.”

Elliott said he doesn’t believe it will be reconsidered. Davis, with ALCAP, said he believes the issue is dead for this year.

“But gambling bills are like zombies, you never know,” he said.

Albritton summed it up this way, “How many times do you pull the casket up? If we bring it up, we may not have 20 (votes). I don’t know. It still remains in the Senate and a very volatile and emotional issue. Misunderstandings. Fear. Greed. All of those come into play. And finding a single vote with two and a half days left is maybe more than we could accomplish. We haven’t achieved it in the last 25 years.”