Alabama's Sports Betting Potential: Updates & Challenges

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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:05 Starting off with Alabama, discussions

00:07 seem to be trending in the right direction.

00:10 Let's not get people excited down there,

00:11 or I should say for me, it's up there,

00:14 that they're going to have sports betting this year.

00:16 But it's on the calendar.

00:17 It's on the discussion.

00:18 What's the latest?

00:20 Yeah, I mean, Alabama's an interesting state.

00:23 I mean, obviously, their constitution

00:25 has banned pretty much every form of gaming.

00:28 And the public hasn't had a chance

00:30 to vote to change the Constitution in almost

00:33 a quarter of a century.

00:34 But they might get a chance to change that this year

00:38 if things continue on as they are.

00:41 Heading into the year, the session started last week.

00:44 Heading into the session just the week before,

00:46 I had reported that the House has taken the lead, which

00:50 is unusual, because the House is normally

00:51 where a Senate attempt has gotten over a couple of times,

00:55 and the House just let it die.

00:57 But this year, the House is leading.

00:59 And they had-- the source I had said,

01:02 they're going to try to move it as quickly as possible.

01:05 And that is certainly happening.

01:07 There was a hearing yesterday where

01:08 there were 18 testimonies, many for it, of course,

01:13 and many against it, of course.

01:15 As we see in every state, you've got

01:16 a lot of religious and mental health people saying, well,

01:20 let's be careful about this.

01:21 But at the same time, there were people for mental health

01:24 and veterans health saying, hey, we're not necessarily for this.

01:28 But if we're going to do it and we're

01:30 going to bring in lots of money for the state,

01:32 can you please give us money for it?

01:34 So the hearings, they were relatively uneventful.

01:38 So that's going to roll into today.

01:40 The commission will take what they heard at the hearing

01:44 and vote on the two bills.

01:46 There's one bill that is the enacting legislation that

01:49 would create up to seven casinos in the state, create a lottery.

01:53 They're one of five states without a lottery.

01:56 Allow pretty much any online operator

01:58 into the state for sports betting if they want,

02:01 and allow Governor Kay Ivey to enter a compact negotiation

02:06 with the Porch Band of Creek Indians

02:11 and see where that goes.

02:14 Now, of course, this is still early.

02:16 It will then have to pass the House and the Senate.

02:19 And in both chambers, it needs to get 60% of votes

02:22 because it is a constitutional amendment.

02:25 And the legislator can't do that on its own.

02:27 So then it'll go to the ballot in November

02:30 and allow Alabamians the chance to vote on whether or not

02:33 they want gambling.

02:34 Now, there's several kind of caveats there.

02:38 The Porch Creek might say, hey, we only

02:40 want in-person sports betting in the state.

02:42 It might even get down to where only sports betting,

02:45 or only a lottery, or only the casinos

02:49 get through because of amendments

02:51 and whatever other kind of opposition

02:54 arises throughout this process.

02:55 So of course, there's lots of problems that could arise,

02:59 lots of challenges because to this point,

03:01 Alabama does not have much gaming at all.

03:04 So it's an uphill battle still, but lots more conversations

03:08 than we've had in the past in Alabama.

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