Alabama's Path to Legal Sports Betting: Key Updates

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00:00All right, so February 4th is a target date for an update on sports betting in Alabama.

00:04You guys have a column up over at legalsportsreport.com.

00:07What do you think happens when that date comes?

00:09Do they push forward or is this just something that will be attempted and failing yet again?

00:15Yeah, it's a good question.

00:16That's kind of been the theme of a lot of these states we still have left on the board, right?

00:20But with Alabama ahead of their session, actually, the new leader of the Senate,

00:25Garland Gudger, I apologize if I'm butchering your last name, Mr. Gudger,

00:30he came out and said that he sees some optimism in the legislature this year for a gambling bill.

00:36Alabama is one of those states that doesn't even have a lottery.

00:39So really, when you talk about sports betting,

00:42it's really hard to just get momentum in general around the idea of further legalizing gambling.

00:47But he did say he thinks there could be appetite for it this year.

00:50Obviously, you have a lot of new faces in the legislature.

00:53In the past, we've seen kind of these big, comprehensive gambling packages that sometimes

00:59include sports betting, sometimes don't throughout several points in the process,

01:02just because, again, of how hard it is to really get any form of gambling legalized in the state.

01:08But I would say the fact that the leader of the Senate kind of seems to be leaning on board or

01:13indicating that he's at least open to pushing the agenda forward if he has more,

01:18if there's more of an appetite in the legislature for it is definitely a good sign.

01:21In the past, I think there's been a lot of dissension among different lawmakers in terms of,

01:27you know, not just whether we want sports betting legalized or gambling,

01:31other forms of gambling, but what we're going to do with the money.

01:33I think that's been kind of a big, you know, caused a lot of a big roadblock.

01:37There is some people want to use it on education.

01:40Some other lawmakers want to use it to expand Medicaid,

01:44different mental health initiatives as well.

01:46So essentially, once they would even get to the point where they pass

01:51a gambling bill that would include sports betting,

01:53they then would have to bring it to the ballot,

01:56and then the people would have to pick if they want it.

01:58So it's not as simple as just are they going to pass a bill?

02:01Is it going to become legal? Are we going to get it?

02:02There's still a lot of hoops to jump through.

02:04But I would say this session, you know,

02:06probably has as good a chance as any out of the previous ones in Alabama.

02:10And remember, with this stuff, you never really know what's going to happen.

02:13Sometimes we're talking about just a little momentum,

02:16and then all of a sudden it snowballs into,

02:18hey, we have the next big state that just legalized.

02:20So I would say there's hope if you're in Alabama,

02:23but nothing super material yet on the legislative front.