Senator Sam Givhan is the latest legislator to express pessimism over the state’s gambling future
Many see 2024 as the year Alabama will pass some form of gambling or lottery bill. However, State Senator Sam Givhan has his doubts.
The concept of a clean lottery bill has been proposed in past legislative sessions, only to fail after some lawmakers connected the bill to authorizing casino gambling, which has been much more challenging to sell to voters. That’s why Givhan says he doesn’t believe stand-alone lottery legislation would qualify for a vote in the current legislative session.
“I don’t think it’d ever get a vote,” said Givhan during his recent interview on local media outlet WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show.” “If it would come up for a vote on the floor without amendment, then yes. Or without a total hijacking, is what I would say.”
Givhan stated he was told that the Senate would probably not take up any bills related to gambling until the House passed its own version. However, Givhan suggested that the Senate would “hijack” any such bill.
“The Senate will, in my opinion, will hijack that, and they will substitute the gambling bill that’s been basically circulated around for years, which gives the existing dog track owners basically a lock on the sites and things like that as opposed to an open bid process, which could be logical,” he said.
While it will be difficult for lawmakers to pass a stand-alone lottery bill, Givhan says he’d rather see it pass than have it tied to casino gambling again.
“If we do that, yeah, it’s not great, but it is what the people want,” he expressed. “And then we’re not going really to have to deal with casinos, in my opinion, because casinos standing alone will not pass.”
