Alabama to Vote on Lottery and Sports Betting: Key Details

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00:00Okay, so folks in Alabama are going to get to vote on lottery and sports betting.

00:07We know that this has been a point of contention, it seems like a 50-50 proposition on all of

00:11this stuff, but at least the legislature, they're trying to get people to vote on this.

00:16Yeah, I mean, this is such a, again, kind of as we talked about Alaska, that I needed

00:21to bring new states.

00:22I mean, we've been talking about Alabama the last couple of years and how there's been

00:26just a back and forth.

00:27One year, the Senate approves a sports betting package to see the House decline it, then

00:33the next year, the House brings back basically the same package and sends it to the Senate

00:37and they say no.

00:39This year, the House said the Senate needs to take it over and send it.

00:43We have not seen a bill introduced yet, but apparently, according to the Senate leader,

00:52they're talking about it and they want to get it right before they introduce anything

00:56and get it through.

00:57Now, this, of course, is a constitutional amendment that would require two-thirds votes

01:02in both chambers and then it would go to a public vote.

01:06So yeah, it's a huge if because, again, we haven't even seen a bill introduced and then

01:14those are huge hurdles.

01:15We've seen both chambers pass sports betting bills and, of course, they are like Alaska,

01:22one of five states without a lottery.

01:23So basically, a lot of this is around lottery, but all of the packages in the past have had

01:28lottery, casino gaming, sports betting, only to see last year the Senate stripped the sports

01:35betting in a conference committee and then ultimately killed the entire package.

01:38So yeah, it's just a lot of ifs in Alabama at the moment, but at least they're talking

01:43about it after being kind of under the assumption that they weren't even considering it because

01:50they haven't filed a bill midway through the session.

01:53So yeah, a lot of ifs.

01:56They might get it through to the voters and then, yeah, at that point it is almost a 50-50

02:03shot in a southern state like that that has conservative sects that really are religiously

02:08opposed to gambling.