Senator that carried gambling legislation explains his ‘no’ vote on compromise

Senator Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, has carried gambling legislation in the Senate this session. Late Tuesday night he voted against a conference committee report he was part of creating.

He said his vote was related to the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.

“This is a bill that is not conducive to my constituencies in my district,” said Albritton. “This bill put restrictions and restraints on PCI so that their participation in the industry would be extreme limited with high competition. It didn’t provide any avenue for any particular growth or even sustainability. That was the primary reason.”

PCI has three facilities on federal land in Atmore, Montgomery, and Wetumpka.

House Bill 151 and House Bill 152 would require Governor 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.

Other issues for Albritton included the lack of control for sports betting and online gambling. The latest versions of the legislation left out sports betting.

“We are doing this a half measure. That was also a problem,” said Albritton.

Tuesday afternoon, Albritton approved the compromise in the conference committee. He said his responsibility as a conference committee member is different than his responsibility voting in the Senate.

“On the conference committee, my goal and my purpose was to try to do the best thing that we could that we thought would have the votes to get it through too. Even though it didn’t match what I thought needed to be done, my obligation was to try to help get something before us for a vote. That’s why I signed it out was to allow the bodies to have a vote,” said Albritton.

The bills have a chance to come up again in the Senate.

Tuesday night Albritton made the motion to concur with the committee report. 21 votes were needed to pass the constitutional amendment, HB151. The split was 20-15.

Albritton explained although the votes weren’t there to pass the constitutional amendment, they were there to approve the committee report.

“That bifurcated it which means we’ve got to have a vote on simply the bill,” said Albritton.

The bill was ultimately carried over, meaning it can be voted on again before the end of the session.

Albritton believed finding the additional vote would be difficult.

This story will be updated.